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SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION. 


A^    LECTURE 

V 

Pelivered  by  Invitation  in  Petersburg,  V'a ,  March  14th 
and  AtDril  29th,  1864,    And  in  Richmond,  Va., 
'  April  7th  and  April  2lst,  1864. 

BY 
OF    NeHjWs  ORLEANS 

liAT^i'ALioN  Washington"  artillery. 


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PETERSBURG: 

FEINTED    BY    A.    F,    CRUTCHFIELD   &     CO.,     BANK,    !5TKj5t:i, 

1864. 


J 


THE 


^hUvit  ^ipnfUntut 


OF   THK 


SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION 


A.    LECTURE 

Delivered  by  Invitation  in  Petersbu'^g.  Va ,  March  14th 

and  April  29th.  1864.    And  in  Richaicnd,  Va., 

April  7th  and  April  21st,  1864. 

BY 

REV.     ^V^ILLIA-M    A..     HA.LL, 

OP    NEW    ORLEANS 

BATTALION  WASHINGTON  ABTILLERY. 


PETERSBURG: 

PRINTED  BY  A.   F.   CRUTCHFIELD  &    CO.,    BANK,    STREET, 

1864. 


COllRESPONDENCE. 

Head-Quarters  Battalion  WAsniNGToN  Artillery,  ) 
Nior  Petrrshurg,    Ya.,   May  2n(^,   18C4.       ) 

Rev.   Wm.  A.  Hall,  Chaplain  B    W.  A.: 

Dear  Sib  : — In  accordance  with  the  expressed  wish  of  many 
members  of  the  Battalion,  and  of  many  gentlemen  of  Petersburg  and 
Richmond  who  have  heard  your  Lecture  on  the  '^  ITisforic  Siijnijicance 
of  the  S'juthern  Revolution,"  we  desire  to  obtain  a  copy  of  it  for  pub- 
lication. Believing  that  a  wide-spread  dissemination  of  your  well 
matured  views,  on  a  subject  of  such  import,  will  be  conducive  of  much 
good  to  our  great  cause,  and  hoping  our  request  will  meet  your  ap- 
probation. We  are,  sir,  with  sincere  regard, 

Your  Obedient  Servants, 

E.  S.  DREW,  Surgeon. 
B.F.  ESHLEMAN,  X<.  Col  Comdg,       W.  H.  WiLKINS,  2nd    Co., 
"\V.  M.  Owen,  Major,  W.   H.    Ellis,   Srd    Co., 

lA  (r.  B.  DkRussy,  '2nd  Co.,  Jno  B.  Gretter,     " 

Lt.'R   A.  Battlvs,  4//i  Co.,  Saml.  Bland,  " 

Capt.  J.  B  Richardson  '2nd  Co.,      P.  W.  Plttiss,         " 
E.  J.  KuRSHEEDT,  A'ljutant,  p.  0.  Fazende,  1st  Co., 

Capt.  Jos.  NoRCOM,  4th  <'o.,  Van  Vinson,  "  . 

Capt.  Andrew  Hero,  jR.,'3rc?  Co.,     Jno.  R.  McGauohey,  *' 
Lt.  Jno.  M.  Galbraith,  1st  Co.,      A.  G.  Knigut,  "Znd  Co., 
Capt.  Edward  OwiiNs,        "  Jno.  S.  Fish,  Uh  Go. 


Head-Quarters  Battalion  Washington  Artillery,  ) 
Near  Petersburg,  Va.,  May  bth,  1864.       j 

Gentlemen : — Agreeably  to  your  very  kind  invitation  the  manuscript 
of  the  Lecture  to  which  you  refer  is  submitted  to  your  disposal.  A  few 
slight  but  appropriate  changes  have  been  made.  Several  paragrahs  appear 
T?hich  could  not  be  delivered  on  the  occasions  of  my  public  discourse. 
I  have  quoted  more  perhaps  than  is  usual  in  productions  of  this  kind ; 
but  I  preferred  that  what  I  believe  to  be  the  truth  on  some  points 
should  receive  that  support  which  it  may  properly  derive  from  the 
sanction  of  weighty  names.  Please  accept,  gentlemen,  my  grateful 
acknowlegmenta  of  the  honor  which  has  been  done  me  in  this  request. 
I  am,  Gentlemen, 

Very  Respectfully, 

Your  Obedient  Servant, 
WM.  A.  HALL, 

Chaplain,  B.  W.  A. 

To  Dr.  !E.  8.  Drew,  Surg.;  Lt.  Col.  B.  F.  Eshleman,  Gomdg.;  Maj. 
W.  M.  Owen,  Lt.  G.  B.  De  Russy,  and  others. 


i/V  •  fU. 


THE  HISTORIC  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  SOUTHERN 
REVOLUTION. 
The  Southern  Revolution  has  been  already  discussed  in 
various  aspects,  social,  political,  economic,  through  thought 
and  blood.  But  we  propose  a  distinct  and  wider  view.  We 
propose  to  inquire,  what  does  this  great  revolution  mean  when 
considered  as  a  movement  in  history  ?  For  that  it  deserves  to 
be  studied  as  a  great  historic  movement,  inferior  to  none  pre- 
ceding, is  evident  from  its  relations  to  the  past,  the  present  and 
the  future.  Let  us  ascertain,  if  possible,  the  real  causes  of 
this  unprecedented  struggle. 

"  Our  siege  of  sorroic, 
Projvjrtioned  to  its  cause,  no  greater  is 
Than  that  which  makes  it  " 

What  also  is  the  great  historic  design  of  this  Revolution  ? 
And  what  historic  results  will  ensue  from  its  successful  issue? 
All  of  which  we  may  now  anticipate,  though  we  may  not  be 
able  to  calculate  the  measure  of  their  fulness.  I  would  con- 
duct this  inquiry  upon  the  idea  that  ihe  meaning  of  any 
periodic  or  national  life  is  to  be  ascertained  by  consulting  the 
nature  and  the  bearings  of  the  philosoph}",  the  inmost  ideas, 
which  make  up  and  control  that  life.  For  human  history, 
considered  as  to  its  matter,  is  a  manifestation  of  the  human 
mind ;  as  to  its  outward,  written  form,  it  is  a  record  of  the 
action  of  that  mind  in  all  the  directions  in  which  it  has 
wrought.  Withal  there  is  the  double  truth  that  God  and  man 
are  the  two  great  factors  of  history;  both  co-operating  to 
accomplish  the  heavenly  purpose  ;  the  One  working  with  the 
independent  free-agency  proper  to  a  self  existent,  indepen- 
dent Being ;  the  other  working  with  the  dependent  free-agenc}'" 
proper  to  a  created  and  therefore  dependent  being ;  yet  God 
all  in  all,  working  in  and  through  and  over  man.  History  is 
therefore,  in  a  higher  sense,  the  manifestation  of  God  in  his 
providence ;  it  is  also  a  record  of  that  divine  providence. 
Prophecy  is  history  yet  to  come,  the  God  of  providence  yet 


1>lJfa,^  ^ 


4  THE   SOUTHEKN   REVOLUTIOX. 

unrevealed,  untraced,  ever  adding  to  the  canon  of  the  provi- 
dential scriptures.  Without  accepiing  the  entire  development 
theory  of  the  German  school,  I  believe  that  all  historic  ideas 
do  beget  and  influence  and  modify  each  other ;  and  control, 
through  a  sort  of  genetic  development,  the  periodic  and  national 
lifes  of  history  ;  so  that  each  succeeding  period  of  history  is, 
so  to  speak,  a  development  out  of  the  preceding.  Each 
gathers  up  the  hij=toric  forces  of  the  preceding,  and  adding 
new  and  modifying  elements  of  its  own  passes  on  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  its  appointed  mission — the  working  out  of  the 
great  principles  which  each  embodies  within  itself. 

Truly  the  prosecution  of  such  an  inquiry,  involves  no  easy 
task.  It  demands  that  we  divest  ourselves  of  all  that  is  tem- 
porary or  special.  We  must  rise  above  the  present  if  we 
would  reach  the  highest  solution  of  our  case.  We  must 
survey  this  great  movement,  ni'>t  as  politicians  merely,  not  as 
religioni.^ts,  not  even  as  Southrons,  but  as  thinkers,  controlled 
by  the  noble  spirit  of  the  philosophy  of  history.  It  is  no 
affected  humility,  but  the  simple  truth  to  acknowledge,  that 
I  do  not  hope  to  prove  equal  to  the  high  demands  of  this  sub- 
ject. But  I  would  endeavor  to  establish  from  historj'-  itself 
four  distinct  propositions.  First,  that  this  Eevolution  marks 
the  beginning  of  the  last  application  of  the  great  law  by 
which  all  history  is  governed ;  Secondly,  that  it  is  a  remarka- 
ble historic  protest  against  philosophic  infidelity  and  disor- 
ganizing wrong ;  Thirdly,  that  it  aims  to  conserve  the  perfec- 
tion of  republican  government,  and  therein  to  vindicate  the 
orgituic  law  under  which  civil  government  was  first  constitu- 
ted by  God;  Fourthly,  that  it  marks  the  begiLining  of  what 
would  seem  to  be  the  last  period  of  human  history  on  its 
present  conditions.  I  therefore  solicit  your  kind  attention 
while  I  endeavor  to  present  in  this  form,  as  briefly  as  possible, 
what  I  take  to  bo  the  answer  to  this  earnest  question, —  Vihat 
is  the  Historic  Sigrcificance  of  the  Southern  Revolution? 

I.  This  Revolution  has  a  grand  significance,  in  that  it  marks 
the  herjinning  of  the  last  application  of  the  great  laiv  by  which 
all  history  >■■?  governed.     The  history  of    our  race   properly 


THE    SOUTHLiKN    IJEVOLUTloX.  J 

starts  froni  that  event  known  as  the  Fall.  Viewed  from  u 
secular  stand-point  it  is  amenable  to  this  historic  law  that — 
2}0iver  seeks  an  equiUbrium.  Hence  power  is  constantly  tend- 
ing from  the  individual  to  L,he  miss — by  m'jss  I  mean  a  con- 
solidated despoti.-ra  of  j^aysical  force — and  from  the  mass 
back  to  the  individual.  Moreover  this  history  seems  to  be 
logically  divisible  thus  far,  on  this  idea  of  power,  into  five 
distinct  periods ;  each  governed  by  one  characteristic  principle, 
The  .First  Period  of*  history  we  may  describe  as  the  Period 
of  Formation;  it  extends  from  the  Fall  of  man  to  the  rise  of 
the  earliest  of  the  Ancient  Empires.  The  Second  Period  is 
the  Period  of  Conquest;  extending  from  the  rise  of  that 
Empire  to  about  100  B.  C.  when  Julias  Ca3sar  began  that 
career  of  Conquest  Avhich  ended  in  the  culmination  of  tue 
Roman  Empire.  The  Third  Period  is  the  Period  of  Consoli- 
dati(m;  extending  from  the  opening  of  Ca3sar's  career  to  the 
Downfall  of  the  Koman  Empire  in  A.  D.  470.  The  Fourth 
Period  is  the  Period  of  Disintegration,  accompanied  by  the 
predominance  of  the  church;  extending  from  the  downfall  of 
the  Roman  Empire  to  the  rise  of  the  Reformation  in  Europe 
in  1516.  The  Fifth  Period  is  the  Period  of  Reformation,  or  of 
Individual  Freedom ;  extending  from  the  rise  of  the  Reforma- 
tion in  Europe  to  the  3'ear  1860,  as  it  seems  to  me.  1  hen  we 
would  seem  to  have  the  Sixth,  and,  as  it  would  appear,  the  last 
period  of  history  on  its  present  conditions,  the  Period  of  Con- 
servatism. On  this  we  would  seem  to  have  just  entered,  and 
the  South,  unconsciously  to  herself  does  seem  to  have  led  the 
way.  Let  us  now  trace,  as  rapidly  as  possible,  through  these 
periods,  the  application  of  this  law  of  power  ;  and  please  to 
observe  the  distinction  that  while  there  are  six  periods  of  his- 
tory, there  are  but  three  movements  of  power. 

In  the  Period  of  Formation  man  appears  before  us  first  as 
an  individual.  All  the  essential  ^elements  of  the  Primeval 
Constitution  pass  over  into  this  period,  but  all  radically  modi- 
fied b}''  two  new  ideas,  Sin  and  Redemption.  These  are  the 
twa  fundamental  conditions  of  human  history  which  underlie 
and  pervade  the  providential  government  of  God  through  the 


"Ti  l^     d>  f\    jj  Zi 


<i>  TUE    SOUTHERX    UliVOLUTIOX, 

whole  administration  of  tlie  economy  of  grace.  The  law  of 
love  being  dethroned  in  the  human  breast,  that  of  selfishness 
reigns.  Man  seeks  his  own  irrespective  of  all  else.  Especiallv 
does  he  aim  at  the  possession  of  unchecked  2)ower ;  first,  per- 
haps, for  self-protection  and  then  for  advantage  over  liia 
fellows.  Owing  partly  to  physical  causes  and  chiefly  to  the 
-collective  force  of  this  law  of  power,  man  undergoes  a  sort  of 
formative  process;  he  passes  out  of  his  individuAl  posture, 
through  the  family,  into  larger  associations,  until  finally  great 
and  powerful  communities  rise  before  us. 

This  introduces  the  Second  Period  of  History,  the  Period 
of  Conquest.  The  idea  of  selfish  power  passes  over  into  this 
period  ;  but  it  is  no  longer  the  power  of  man  the  individual, 
or  of  man  in  smaller  associations,  but  of  man  in  large  and 
powerful  communities,  swaying  the  besom  of  aggregate  poioer, 
chiefly  for  the  conquest  of  his  fellows.  Each  of  these  Entires 
lives  its  allotted  time  and ,  after  achieving  its  historic  mission, 
gives  way  to  another  more  mighty  and  imposing.  This  period 
ends  in  the  bosom  of  the  Roman  life,  about  100  B.  C,  when 
Julius  Csesar  began  that  remarkable  career  of  Conquest  which 
ended  in  the  Culmination  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

At  this  point  we  mark  the  beginning  of  the  Third  Period, 
the  Period  of  Consolidation ;  extending  from  the  opening  of 
Caesar's  career  to  the  Downfall  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  476. 
The  Roman  Empire,  the  last  and  grandest  of  the  old-world 
powers,  embraces  all  the  civilized  world.  Having  reached 
apparently  the  utmost  limits  of  conquest,  having  even  satia- 
ted the  demands  of  an  almost  superhuman  ambition,  the  imn 
perial  Mistress  of  the  Earth  labors  to  consolidate  all  the  peoples 
and  elements  of  the  age  beneath  her  own  control.  This  era 
is  grandly  featured  by  the  sum  of  old-world's  life — by  the 
highest  development  of  law  and  government  and  social  civil- 
ization in  the  Roman  State  ;  by  the  highest  aesthetic  and 
intellectual  culture  in  Greece ;  by  the  transition  ui  that 
culture  to  the  Roman  mind  ;  by  the  Incarnation  of  the  Son  of 
God,  in  which  God  over  man  becomes  God  in  man,  and  the 
idea  of  Redemption  is  completed  for  its  work  ;  by  the  passing 


THE   SOUTH  KRN   REVOLUTION.  i 

over  of  a  pure  Theism  from  the  Hebrew  nation  to-  the  chris- 
tain  church ;  by  the  perfection  and  universal  spread  of  the 
Greek  language  as  the  vernacular  in  order  to  its  being  the 
organ  of  a  more  profound  and  spiritual  statement  of  religious 
truth  ;  and  by  the  establishment  of  a  vast  system  of  military 
roads  and  lines  of  intercommunication,  extending  from  Rome 
as. the  centre  throughout  this  consolidated  world  ;  all  concen- 
trated and,  as  it  were  absorbecl,  by  this  great  consolidating 
power;  and  all  conducing  to  the  most  fruitful  event  of  this 
era,  the- universal  spread  of  the  Gospel  through  the  evangel- 
istic agencies  of  the  christian  church.  But  the  time  has  now 
come  for  another  great  historic  movement.  The  Old-world 
has  done  its  work ;  it  has  exhausted  all  of  its  historic  forces. 
These  having  reached  their  utmost  limit,  they  begin  to  pro- 
duce only  evil  fruits  which  appear  in  the  fearful  corruptions  of 
the  day.  Not  even  the  church  of  God  escapes  the  contami- 
nation. The  law  of  selfishness,  the  love  of  power,  returns  to 
punish  itself.  A  new  and  more  vigorous  element  must  be 
added  to  the  decaying  energies  of  the  Old-world's  life  in  order 
to  conserve  and  perpetuate  religion  and  civilization  through, 
out  the  world.  The  decree  uttered  by  the  Roman  Senate 
against  Carthage  rebounds  upon  the  cruel  Empire — Delenda 
Roma.  And  now  the  Northern  Tribes,  the  great  Teutonic  or 
German  element,  rush  down  upon  Italy,  the  Imperial  Seat 
of  the  Caesars,  beautiful  even  in  her  corruption,  majestic 
even  in  her  weakness,  and,  as  the  rod  of  Jehovah,  dash  her  in 
pieces  like  a  potter's  vessel.  The  field  of  history  is  strewn 
with  the  fragments  of  a  magnificent  Empire,  and  the  light  of 
liberty,  long  dimly  burning,  seems  to  be  entombed  forever 
in  the  darkness  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

The  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  not  only  marks  the  close 
of  the  Third  Period  of  history  and  the  opening  of  the  Fourth, 
but  it  marks  the  close  of  Ancient  history  with  all  that  distin- 
guishes it  from  that  which  we  term  Modern  history.  The 
essential  characteristics  of  the  latter  as  distinguished  from  the 
former  are  the  addition  of  this  Teutonic  or  German  element 
to  the  previous  historic  forces,  and  the  consequent  recession  of 


O  THE    SOUTHERN    REVOLUTIOX. 

povrer  from  the  mass  to  the  individual.     During  this  period 
all  pre- existing  political  bodies  and  relations  are  broken  up, 
disintegrated.     Chaotic   ruin  threatens  all  that  is  precious  to 
society.     But,  as  the  only  ipstitution  that  could  survive  the 
crash  of  dynasties  and  the  collision  of  newly  combining  ele- 
ments, the  Eomau  church  controls  the  storm.     Within  her 
bosom,  as  the  only  refuge,  gather  the  elements  that  are  to 
civilize  the  world  to  come.     All  the  corruptions  of  the  pre- 
vious era,  which  adhere  by  an  almost  physical  affinity  ;  all  its 
aesthetic    and   intellectual   culture ;    its    grandly    developed 
law  and  science  of  government ;  its  administrative  skill  and 
ability  ;  and  strange  to  say,  this  gigantic  idea  of  consolidated, 
imperial  power,   which  was  wrought  upon  the  church    by 
Hildebrand  as  it  had  been  wrought  upon  the  state  by  the 
C^sars — all  pass  over  into  the  bosom  of  the  christian  church. 
There  they  are  indeed  preserved,  but  almost  at  the  expense 
of  her  religioits  life.     This  period  is,  therefore,  strongly  mark- 
ed by  the  predominance  of  the  church.     It  is  in  this  respect  the 
opposite  of  the  preceding  era;  in  which  the  political  pre- 
dominated over  the  religious  element,  except  during  a  brief 
transition-epoch    when  church  and    state  were    in   alliance 
under  Constantine  the  Great.     Its  life  was  a  vast  church-life. 
All  of  its  intellectual  energies  were  expended  upon  the  vari- 
ous topics  of  theology,  under  the  guidance  of  the  Aristotelian 
philosophy,  in  the  unavoidable  though  misdirected  effort  to 
mediate  between  reason  and  revelation,  to  reconcile  faith  and 
knowledge ;  and,  therefore,  as  a  means  to  this  end,  to  give  a 
logical  statement  and  consistency  to  the  truths  of  revealed  re- 
ligion.    That  whole  series  of  efibrts  has  been  described  by  the 
term  Scholasticism ;  which,  being  necessarily  confined  to  the 
church  and  thus  to  the  universities  which  were  controlled  by 
the  church,  Avas  the  only  form  in  which  the  intellectual  life  of 
that  age  could  utter  itself.     In  the  almost  exact  language  of  a 
living  German  writer ; — the  whole  Scholastic  Theology  be- 
came divided  into  two  schools — "  the  one  exalting  the  under- 
standing, the  other  the  will  as  its  highest  principle ;  both  be- 
ing driven  into  essentially  differing  directions  by  this  opposi- 


THE   SOUTHSRX    REVOLUTION.  9 

tion  of  a  theoretical  and  a  practical  principle.     Even  with 
this  began  the  downfall  of  Scholasticism."     Although  while, 
standing  wholly  in  the   service  of  the  church,  it  had  never- 
theless grown  out  of  a  scientific  impulse  and    so  naturally 
awakened  a  spirit  of  inquiry  and  a  sense  of  knowledge ;  al- 
though it  made  the  objects  of  faith  the  objects  of  thought ; 
though   it  raised  men  from  the  sphere  of  unconditional  faith  to 
that  of  doubt,  of  investigation,  'and  of  knowledge,  and  by  its 
very  effort  to  demonstrate  the  principles  of  theology  establish- 
ed, though  against  its  kno*wlcdge  and  design,  the  authority  of 
reason;  although  it  introduced  to  the  world  another  principle 
than  that  of  the  old  church,  the  principle  of  the  thinkino- 
spirit,  or  at  least  prepared  the  way  for  the  victory  of  that 
principle ;  though    even    its   deformities — the   many  absurd 
questions  upon  which  the  Schoolmen  divided,  their  thousand- 
fold unnecessary  and  accidenial  distinctions,  their  inquisitive- 
ness  and  subtleties — all  grew  out  of  a  spirit  of  investigation 
which  could  utter  itself  only  in  this  way  under  the  all-power- 
ful ecclesiastical  spirit  of  the  time, — still  this  highest  point  of 
Scholasticism  was  the  turning  point  to  its  self-destruction. 
The  reasonableness  of  revealed  truth,  "the  oneness  of  faith 
and  knoweldge.  had  always  been  the  fundamental  premise  of 
the  Schoolmen  ;  but  this  premise  fell  away,  and  the  whole 
basis  of  their  philosophy  was  given  up  in  principle  the  mo- 
ment Duns  Scotus  placed  the  problem  of  theology  in  the  prac- 
tical.    When  the  practical  and  the  theoretical  became  divid- 
ed, philosophy  broke  loose  from  theology  and  knowledge  from 
faith  ;  the  great  principles  of  Scholasticism  came  to  an  end  • 
knowledge  assumed   a  position  apart  from  faith  and  above 
authority — this  gave  birth  to  modern  philosophy — and  the  re- 
ligious consciousness  broke  loose  from  the  traditional  dogma 
— this  begat  the  Reformation."*     Thus  this   period  carries 
through  the  Roman  church  the  same  effort  to  wield  the  sceptre 
of  consolidated  power ;  but  by  the  very  nature  of  its  inward, 
intellectual  life,  it  breaks  down  upon  the  Sixteenth  Century 
in  precisely  analogous  results. 

•Schwcgler'8  Flistory  of  PailcsoDhy,  Transition  to  MoJ.  1  hil. 

2 


10  THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION, 

Those  results  brightly  define  the  begiEming  of  the  Fifth 
Period  of  history,  that  wonderful  protest  of  religion  and  of 
thought,  which  asserted  itself  early  in  the  Sixteenth  Century 
in  the  German  Ee formation.  That  period  closed,  it  seems  to 
'me,  in  the  year  1860,  when  the  rise  of  the  Southern  Eevolu- 
tion  announced  the  opening  of  the  Sixth,  and,  as  it  would  ap- 
pear, the  last  period  of  human  history  oi<  its  present  conditions. 

"All  the  elements  of  the  new  era,  the  struggle  against  Scholasticism 
the  advancement  of  the  natural  sciences,  the  revival  of  letters  and  the 
more  enlarged  culture  thus  secured,  th'e  striving  after  national  inden- 
pendence,  the  attempts  of  the  State  to  free  itself  from  the  church  and 
the  hierarchy,  and  above  all  the  desire  of  the  thinking  spirit  for  free- 
dom from  the  fetters  of  authority — all  these  elements  found  their  focus 
and  point  of  union  in  the  Grcrman  Reformation.  Though  having  its 
root,  at  first,  in  practical  and  religious  and  national  interests,  and  expen- 
ding itself  mainly  upon  the  christian  doctrine  and  the  church,  yet  was 
the  Reformation,  in  principle  and  in  its  true  consequences,  a  rupture  of 
the  thinking  spirit  with  authority,  a  protesting  against  the  fetters  of 
the  positive.  The  purely  human  as  such,  the  individual  heart  and  con- 
science, the  subjective  conviction,  in  a  word,  the  rights  of  the  subject 
now  began  to  be  of  worth.  In  the  same  way  on  the  side  of  knowledge 
the  individual  man  came  back  to  himself  and  threw  off  the  restraints  of 
authority.  He  was  impressed  with  the  conviction  that  the  whole  pro- 
cess of  Redemption  must  be  experienced  within  himself,  that  his  recoij- 
ciliation  to  God  and  salvation  was  his  own  concern  for  which  he  needed 
no  mediation  of  clergy.  Be  found  his  whole 'being  in  his  faith,  in  the 
depths  of  his  feelings  and  convictions.  For  religion  reduced  to  its 
simplest  elements  will  be  found  its  have  its  source,  like  philosophy,  in 
the  self-knowledge  of  the  reason."* 

And  yet  religion,  unlike  philosophy,  is  the  growth  of  a 
soul,  a  loving  reason,  renewed,  empowered  and  taught  by  the 
Holy  Ghost.  Thus  we  perceive  that  the  leading  principle  of 
this  era,  was  fi-eedom  of  individual  thought ;  this  was  the  chief 
historic  force  that  generated  and  controlled  its  grand  and 
fruitful  life.  Its  work  now  done,  that  period  has  detached 
itself  from  the  present  and  put  on  the  robes  of  a  kingly  past. 

It  is  also  clear  that  Ancient  History,  taken  as  a  whole,  was 

*Dr.  Schwegler, 


THE   SOUTHEEN  EEVOLUTION.  H 

a  movement  of  power  from  the  individual  to  the  mass  ;  reacli- 
ing  its  highest  development*  when  power  massed  itself  in  the 
massive  Eoman  State.     On  the  other  hand  Modern  History 
has  been  a  recession  of  power  from  the  mass  to  tte  individual. 
The  era  of  tlfe  Middle  Ages  did,  indeed,  carry  the  same  effort 
at  consolidated  power  in  another  direction,  namely  through 
the  Roman  church;  but  nil  along  that  verv  effort,  moving  in 
that  direction,  power  was  descending  to  the  individual ;  be- 
cause religion,  which  is  the  soul  of  the  church,  works  upon 
the  most  individual  of  all  man's  relations,  those  which  he 
sustains  to  God.     That  tendency  has  been  moving  from  the 
bosom  of  Scholasticism  within  the  Eoman  church,  but  more 
especially  of  the  Sixteenth  Century,  to  the  present  day.     Per- 
verted in  part,  as  we  shall  see,  into  modern  philosophical  athe- 
ism, it  reached  its  extreme  development  in  the  Northern  portion 
of  the  late  United  States.    Against  this  we  are  now  contending. 
It  is  also  true  that  in  both  these  cycles,  Ancient  and  Modern, 
we  discover  many  lesser  movements,  actions  and  reactions ; 
but  these,  like  the  billows  on  the  Gulf  Stream,  or  the  eddy- 
ing currjents  of  the  Mississippi,  are  either  lesser  applications 
of  the  same  grent  law  or  of  collateral  andx)onnected  principles  • 
they  all  move  on  in  the  same  general  direction  in  obedience 
to  the  same  great  law.     Now  the  movement  which  power  has 
already  begun  is  the  last  which  it  can  possibly  make.     Let  it 
be  observed  that  history  on  its  saci'ed  side  is,  likewise,  sus- 
ceptible of  a  threefold  division.     In  the  ancient  dispensation 
God  the  Father,  God  absolutely  considered,  was  more  singly 
revealed.     During  the  time  of  the  Incarnation  God  the  Son, 
to  whom  was  committed  all  power  in  heaven  and  earth,  was 
more   specially  revealed;  and  that  upon  the  summit  of  the 
consolidated  Eoman  Empire  which  gathered  together  the  very 
energies  that  were  to  aid  the  universal  spread  of  His  Gospel. 
The  Day  of  Pentecost  began  the  more  special  revelation  of 
God  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Third  Person  of  the  Trinity,  oper- 
ating most  fully  upon  the  individual  man  in  the  most  individ- 
ual of  all  his  relations.     So  likewise  on  the  one  side  of  power 
— and,  it  would  seem,  by  virtue  of  the  inward  connecting 


12  THE   SOUTHERN    REVOIA'TIOX. 

principles  of  the  Divine  ecoAomy, — Ancient  history  was  a 
movement  of  power  from  the  individual  to  the  mass  ;  Modern 
history  has  been  a  recession  of  power  from  the  mass  to  the 
individual.  The  reaction  from  the  extreme  of  individual  au- 
thority, which  has  now  begun,  cannot  result  again  in  the  mass, 
because  the  God  of  History  never  repeats  himself  in  such  great 
movements,  eonducted  a,s  they  are,  upon  those  inward,  con- 
necting principles.  History  seems  to  have  reached  on  the  side 
of  power  a  place  analogous  to  that  which  it  has  reached  on  the 
side  of  redemption,  that  is,  the  dispensation  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
operating  most  intensely  on  the  individual  man  in  the  most 
individual  of  all  his  relations,  those  which  he  sustains  to 
God.  The  last  days  of  this  dispensation  are  yet  to  be  com- 
pleted. "  Then  cometh  the  end,  when  the  Son  shall  deliver 
up  the  kingdom  of  God,  even  the  Father ;  when  he  shall 
have  put  down  all  rule  and  all  authority,  and  power.  Then 
shall  the  Son  also  himself  be  subject  to  him  that  put  all  things 
under  him,  that  God  may  be  all  in  all."*  The  idea  of  God  in 
his  tri-personality  will  pass  back  into  that  of  God  in  his  unity  • 
the  dispensations  of  God,  in  the  Trinity,  will  have  passed  back 
ijato  that  of  God  in  his  unity.  Power  must,  therefore,  settle  on 
a  point  where  it  will  find  its  equilihrium,  between  the  despot- 
ism of  the  individual  and  the  desy^otism  of  the  mass.  This  is 
last  and  the  only  movement  v/hich  it  can  make ;  and  this  will 
complete  the  trinity  of  historic  developments. 

II.  This  Eevolution  has  a  profound  significance  in  that  it  is 
a  great  historic  protest,  the  only  one  of  the  sort  in  history,  against 
philosophic  infidelity  and  disorganizing  wrong.  We  are  com- 
batting a  fanaticism,  without  foundation  in  the  Bible  or  in 
philosophy,  which  assails  all  the  fundamental  principles  of 
human  and  of  divine  nature,  as  they  are  revealed  in  the  Word 
and  expounded  in  the  providence  of  God ;  as  they  are  embodied 
in  the  worthy  social,  political  and  religious  systems  of  the 
present  day.  Previous  history  discovers  no  such  assault,  so 
profound,  so  comprehensive.  The  French  Eevolution,  the 
final  fruit  of  materialism,  moved  more  upon  the  surface :  it 

*lCtr   XV  :  24,  28. 


THE  SOUTHERX  REVOLUTION.  13 

•ran  its  course  with  Frencli  vivacity  through  the  ghastly  reign 
of  terror.  But  this  crusade  lays  hold  with  ideal  strength  upon 
the  age-laid  pillars  of  society.  The  fruit  of  the  extremest 
individualism,  it  is  the  most  fearful  illustration  in  history  of 
the  truth — that  the  intellectual  and  moral  philosophy  of  a 
people,  which  educate  their  heart  and  conscience  and  intellect, 
determine  their  whole  inward  and  outward  life,  their  charac- 
ter, form  of  government,  of  society,  and  of  religion — and  de- 
cide their  destiny. 

We  may  rest  assured  that  this   war  is  not  designed  to  abol- 
ish or  to  injure  slavery.     It  may  be  intended  to  produce  in  us 
a  willingness  to  part    with  the  institution  when   God's  time 
shall  have  come,  if  ever  it  does  come.     But  no  further  can  it 
aim,  unless  the  Almighty  is  working,  contrary  to  the  analogy 
of  all  his  pasfa  dealings  with  our  race,  to  carry  out  an  ultimate 
purpose  aftecting  deeply  the  interests  of  his  creatures,  without 
giving  them   the  slightest  indication  of    such  design.     For 
touching  the  question  of  slavery  in  its   moral  bearings,  this 
revolution  clearly  aims  to  vindicate  the  word  of  God,  which 
approves  that  institution  and  the  providence  of  God,  which 
has  wisely   preserved  it.     Stated  essentially  in  the  primeval 
law  of  nature;  restated  under  the  Covenant  of  Grace,  with 
modifications  suited  to  a  condition  of  mixed  good  and  evil ; 
sanctified  and  regulated  by  statement  and  by  precept  through- 
out the  word  of  God,  which  puts  the  relaiion  of  master  and 
slave,  as  one  of  the  four  essential  relations  of  the  household ; 
pervadiJag  the  basis  and  the  structure  of  the  whole  economy 
of  Redemption  through  its  earthly  stage ;  standing  under  the 
eye  of  Jehovah  in  the  patriarchal  era,  the  first  period  of  his- 
tory, and  reappearing  in  the  identical  system  of  these  States 
in  this  last  period ;  upheld  and  illustrated,  for  the  wisest  pur- 
poses, by  the  providence  of  God  throughout  the  entire  history 
of  our  race  ;  and  now  assailed  in  this  last  period  of  history  by 
the  combined  infidelity  of  the  ages — the  doctrine  of  domestic 
slavery  and  the  system  of  labor  which  time  has  built  upon  it 
are  in  a  true  sense  divine  ;  they  are  the  sum  and  the  condition 
of  the  African's  welfare ;  and  they  will  probably  continue  on 


14  THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION.   . 

some  part^of  Ccarth  until  the  last  day,  when  the  economy  of 
grace  will  demit  whatsoever  is  peculiar  to  its  earthly  stage 
and  passover  its  enduring  glories  on  the  Lamb's  Book  of 
Life  *  Has  not  this  Revolution  already  done  what  no  other 
instrumentality  could  have  effected?  Confronting,  as  we  do_, 
the  only  case  in  history  of  a  senseless  fanaticism  controlling 
most  of  the  leading  minds  in  Christendom,  what,  upon  the 
analogies  of  history,  could  be  expected  to  break  the  grasp  of 
such  a  fanaticism,  except  just  such  a  revolution  ?  This  war 
has  set  the  seal  of  providence  before  the  eyes  of  the  world 
upon  the  stability  of  domestic  slavery  and  of  Southern  Socie- 
ty ;  it  has  refated  the  slanders  of  our  enemies  upon  the  char- 
acter of  the  Southern  people ;  it  has  torn  off  the  silver  veil 
from  the  face  of  Northern  character  and  revealed  to  a  disgust- 
ed world  the  hideous  features  of  the  false  Prophet.  With  all 
reverence  I  believe  that  we  have  come  too  far  in  civilization, 
that  we  are  too  near  the  latter  day  glory,  for  a  godless  fanati- 
cism to  master  and  desolate  the  church  of  the  living  God, 
and  put  back  that  civilization  several  hundred  years.  Above 
all,  it  is  this  that  lends  an  awful  sacredness  to  this  contest 
on  our  part — that  the  rightful  claims  of  Jehovah  are  deeply 
involved.  Grrand  as  the  contest  is  "  for  independence  and 
liberty,  for  the  altars  and  the  graves  of  our  fathers,  and  for 
the  more  sacred  rights  of  conscience  and  freedom  to  worship 
God,  it  rises  to  the  moral  sublime  "  when  we  consider  that 
we  are  permitted  to  vindicate  the  supremacy  of  Jehovah's  word 
and  the  purity  of  his  government.  This  explains  why  the 
Southern  Clergy,  standing  aside  for  the  time  from  all  their 
previous  practice,  have  shown  such  an  active  sympathy  with 
this  political  revolution.  "  It  is  not  only  from  the  impulse  of 
a  lofty  patriotism,  grand  as  that  sentiment  may  be ;  but  out  of 
loyalty  to  God  against  whose  rightful  supremacy  a  wicked  in- 
fidelity has  lifted  its  rebellious  arm.  Of  all  men  they  are 
best  qualified  to  appreciate  the  moral  bearings  of  this  con- 
troversy.    Much  as  they  desire  their  country  to  be  free,  with 

*Gen.  2:  5,8,  20—9:  25—27.     Ex.  20:   19,  11.     Ps.  40;  6  with  Ex.  21:  6  and 
Heb.  10:  6,  7,  10.    Phil.  2:  7.     Rom.  6:  14,  IC,  22.     Rev.  19.   18. 


THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION.  15 

an  infinitely  deeper  fervor  do  they  desire  that  God  should 
reign."'-^ 

Let  nothing  in  this  statement  imply  the  least  condemnation 
of  anything  that  was  true  in  the  Eeformation  era — that  noble 
^protest  of  individual  freedom.  Kever  can  we  too  highly  esti- 
mate the  value  of  that  great  intellectual  and  moral  movement. 
It  has  conferred  upon  us  all  the  glory  and  blessedness  of  mod- 
ern civilization  and  religion.  We  simply  discover  that,  as  in 
former  ages  so  in  this,  men  have  acted  upon  the  fallacy  that 
the  reverse  of  wrong  as  such  is  right.  Protestantism  did 
spring  out  of  the  same  essence  that  begat  modern  philosophy  ; 
and  in  their  subsequent  progress  the  two  have  gone  hand  in 
hand  together.  But  as  the  deathly  Upas  flourishes  on  the 
richest  soil,  so  have  false  philosophies,  bearing  the  deadliest 
fruits,  groAvn  up  on  the  soil  that  bears  the  true.  Out  of  that 
very  movement  was  dragged  a  needless  tendency,  whose  re- 
sults have  culminated  in  the  fearful  crusade  that  clothes  the 
South  in  mourning  to-day.  Nearly  all  the  world-lffe  at  the 
present  day — and  especially  this  American  war — may  be 
traced  largely  and  directly  to  these  causes — the  Transcenden- 
tal Philosophy  of  German}^ — the  atheistic  philosophy  of  the 
later  and  earlier  French  School — and  the  selfish  utilitarian 
Moral  Philosophy  of  Dr  Paley,  a  divine  of  the  church  of 
England,  It  is  eminently  true  that  the  Northern  mind,  by 
its  education  during  the  last  seventy  years  under,'  these  false 
philosophies,  has  been  prepared  for  this  inhuman  crusade  upon 
the  existence  of  the  Southern  States.  Let  us  trace  the  pro- 
cess, and  in  order  to  its  clearer  comprehension  let  us  define  in 
passing,  the  nature  of  philosophy,  and  the  aim  of  mordern 
philosophy. 

Philosophy  is  a  science  distinct  in  itself  The  science, 
commonly  so  called,  get  the  material  of  truth  from  observa- 
tion— "they  find  it  at  hand  and  take  up  just  as  they  find  it. 
Philosophy,  on  the  other  hand,  is  never  satisfied  with  receiv- 
ing that  which  is  given  simply  as  it  is  given,  but  rather  fol- 

Rev.  B.  M.  Palmer,  D.  D.,  of  Xew    Orleans — Discourse    before  ibe  Legislature^ 
of  Georgia,  March  27tb,   1863. 


16  THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION, 

lows  it  out  to  its  ultimate  grounds  ;  it  examines  every  individ- 
ual thing  witli  reference  to  a  final  principle  and  considers  it 
one  link  in  the  whole  chain  of  thought,"  Philosophy,  there- 
fore, is  the  science  of  final  principles — of  ultimate  ideas. 
Scrutinizing  the  material  and  the  spiritual  world — the  world 
of  mind  and  the  outward  world  of  varied  life  and  manifold 
relations  divine  and  human,  it  seeks  to  understand  these,  and 
to  refer  their  glorious  facts  to  some  ultimate  principles  by 
which  they  may  be  bound  together  and  classified.  Hence 
philosophy  is  inseparable  from  man  as  a  thinking  being; 
and,  as  Mr.  Pearson  well  remarks* — "  the  rise  of  speculative 
philosophy  in  any  age  or  country  where  there  are  thinkers 
seems  inevitable..  It  is  the  natural  conseq,uence  of  the  mind's 
desire  to  penetrate  into  the  mysteries  of  existence  and  to 
know  all  things.  Man  himself  is  a  mystery,  the  world  around 
him  is  a  mystery,  the  great  God  above  him  is  a  mystery,*  and 
the  relations  between  each  and  all  of  these  are  profoundly  and 
impressively  mysterious.  And  while  the  great  majority  of 
men  are  content  with  the  knowledge  that  lies  upon  the  surface 
of  things,  there  are  those  who  must  endeavor  to  get  beyond 
and  solve  the  problems  of  mysterious  existence.  This,  in  its- 
self,  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  an  evil.  It  indicates  a  reflecting 
age  and  marks  tthe  advancement  of  a  community  in  mental 
culture.  The  evil  is,  when  it  spurns  the  investigation  of  pal- 
pable facts  and  indubitable  evidence,  treats  as  empirical  the 
honest  method  of  induction,  and  passing  the  bounds  of  all 
fair  and  legitimate  inquiry,"  transcends  the  proper  limits  of 
human  thought. 

Now  it  has  been  the  aim  of  modern  philoso|)hy,  with  per- 
haps larger  success,  to  ascertain  the  final  principles  of  all  truth. 
Especially  has  it  labored  in  the  sphere  of  mental  science 
There  it  has  raised  this  fundamental  inquiry — what  is  the 
origiQ  ot  our  knowledge  ?  We  seem  to  derive  our  impressions 
of  the  external  world  through  the  senses.  But  is  the  mind 
simply  a  hlanh  sheet  upon  which  those  impressions  are  stamp- 
ed ?     Or  does  it  essentially  modify  them  ?     Or  does  the  mind 

*lDfideIity,  p.  ?o2. 


THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION.  17 

contain  within  itself  the  types  of  the  world  without,  certain 
innate  ideas,  which  are  only  aroused  into  activity — whenever 
we  behold  the  external  world  ?  Briefly,  does  our  knowledge 
originate  in  the  senses,  or  within  the  mind  itself,  or  is  it  a  sort 
of  compromise  between  the  workings  of  both  thought  and 
sense — of  reflection  and  sensation  ?  Now  precisely  as  men 
have  given  undue  prominence  to  the  ideal,  or  the  sensational 
origin  of  knowledge,  in  that  proportion  have  they  developed 
a  philosophy  grossly  material,  and  sensual,  or  vaguely  ideal, 
and  transcendental.  Such,  precisely,  have  been  the  painful 
and  needless  developments  in  two  branches  of  modern  phi- 
losophy. Beneath  their  united  eft'ects  we  are  staggering  to- 
day. Mr,  Locke  announced  with  much  truth,  that  our  know- 
ledge is  the  combined  result  of  sensation  and  reflection.  Mr. 
Hobbes,  seizing  upon  the  purely  material  side  of  this  theory, 
made  knowledge  to  be  simply  transformed  sensations.  Others 
resolved  the  soul  itself  into  a  mere  collection  of  atoms — a 
material  substance;  thus  overturning  the  doctrine  of»the 
immortality  of  the  soul,  with  its  consequent  religion  and  mo- 
rality. From  these,  Condillac  in  France,  Diderot,  D'Holbach, 
and  the  Systems  de  la  Nature,  carried  materialism  to  its 
bitterest  fruits  in  that  beautiful  land  of  the  vine.  Starting 
with  the  idea  that  knowledge  originates  wholly  in  the  senses, 
this  philosophy  soon  identified  man  with  material  nature, 
made  death  an  eternal  sleep,  piety  the  superstition  of  the 
senseless,  and  morality  the  religion  of  the  fool.  Absorbing 
the  Deity  in  his  own  creation,  it  declared  that  God  was  the 
universe.  At  last,  seizing  with  Celtic  frenzy,  and  yet  with 
sensual  weakness,  upon  the  very  foundations  of  society,  as  it 
had  upon  the  throne  of  Jehovah,  it  enthroned  the  Goddess 
of  material  reason  and  rioted  through  the  terrible  reign  of 
1793.  On  one  side  we  are  now  combatting  the  last  results  of 
that  atheism.  The  theory  of  "human  rights,"  which  Thos. 
Paine  sowed  deeply  over  the  receptive  North,  after  the  first 
Revolution,  was  derived  from  the  French  atheism.  And  the 
very  text  upon  which  this  Abolition  crusade  is  discoursing  so 
bloodily  the  dogma,  that  "all  men  are  created  free,  and  have 

3 


18  THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION. 

equal  riglits  to  liberty,"  wns  incorporated  into  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  a  Southern  statesman,  who 
imbibed  his  philosophical  sentiments  from  the  schools  of 
France. 

The  German  philosophy  has  been  a  reaction  on  the  side  of 
idealism,  against  the  French  extreme.  Starting  from  the 
principle  of  Des  Cartes,  that  philosophy,  or  the  pursuit  of 
knowledge,  should  be  begun  with  universal  doubt,  it  moved 
through  the  phases  of  Leibnitz  and  Wolf,  until  it  reached  the 
extreme  development  in  the  transcendental  Pantheism  of 
the  later  German  School.  'Finding  the  origin  of  knowledge 
wholly  in  the  soul  of  man,  this  makes  him  the  centre  and  the 
solution  of  the  universe.  Proclaiming  that  the  universe  is 
God,  it  destroys  the  distinct  personality  of  Jehovah,  Man 
being  a  part  of  the  universe,  is  theiefore  a  part  of  God ;  he 
is  to  himself  the  only  God ;  and  the  only  Divine  revelation 
that  is  or  can  be  made  to  him,  is  the  intuition  of  his  own 
coifciousness.  Being  thus  intensely  individual,  making  each 
man  the  sole  criterion  to  himself  of  all  truth,  this  philosophy 
transcends  every  proper  limit  of  human  thought ;  it  refuses 
obedience  to  any  outward  revelation  from  a  personal  God; 
it  denies  every  claim  of  an  historic  Christ,  or  an  evidential 
Christianity;  it  overrides  every  restraint  or  obligation,  social 
or  political;  and  aims  to  adjust  the  universe,  things  human 
and  divine,  upon  the  intuitions  of  this  exalted  man — God,  the 
self-constituted  judge  of  all  things.  Pantheism  has  just  com- 
pleted its  ideal  course  and  work.  According  to  the  best  his- 
torians of  the  German  philosophy,  that  j)hilosophy  is  entering 
upon  a  new  phase,  which  is  as  yet  undetermined.  One  of  the 
most  remarkable  facts  of  the  age  is,  that  Strauss,  who  made 
the  famous  attempt  in  his  Life  of  Jesus,  on  this  transcendental 
theory,  to  make  the  historic  Christ  a  mere  idea,  begotten  in 
the  consciousness  of  humanity,  a  mere  Christian  myth,  and  the 
Gospel  history  a  mere  spiritual  mythology,  has  just  recanted 
his  entire  theory;  thus  verifying  the  beautiful  remark  of 
Isaac  Taylor, — the  moment  you  prove  the  resurrection  of 


THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION.  19 

Jesus  from  the  dead,  tlie  whole  fabric  of  modern  infidelity 
falls  to  the  ground. 

But  above  all  other  causes,  the  intensely  practical  effects 
of  that  Pantheism  are  upon  us  to  day.  This  whole  Northern 
crusade  is  the  special  effect  in  this  country  of  the  ideal 
atheism  of  the  German  School,  precisely  as  the  Revolution  of 
1793,  was  the  effect  in  France  of  the  material  atheism  of  the 
French  School.  It  has  appeared  here  because  the  conditions 
of  American  life,  unlike  those  of  despotic  Europe,  were  highly 
favorable  to  its  extremest  development.  The  French  Revol- 
ution was  more  superficial,  special,  Celtic ;  this  crusade  is 
more  profound  comprehensive,  Teutonic;  the  latter  has  been 
slower  in  its  development,  than  the  former,  because  the  ideal 
moves  more  slowly  than  the  material.  It  has  been  already 
said  that  the  moral  philosophy  of  Dr.  Paley,  has  had  an  in- 
fluence in  forming  the  present  condition  of  the  Northern  mind. 
John  Randolph  once  observed,  that  New  England  derived 
her  morality  from  Dr.  Paley  and  the  Jesuits.  Defining  virtue 
to  be  that  which  conduces  to  one's  ow:i  happiness,  rather  than 
conformity  to  the  outwardi}'  revealed  will  of  God,  Dr.  Paley's 
piiilosophy  has  educated  the  Norihern  heart  and  conscience 
in  selfishness,  while  German  Transcendentalism  has  been  in 
like  manner,  educating  the  Northern  intellect,  until  the  bulk 
of  Northern  life  has  become  a  monstrous  Egoism.  Imported 
during  the  last  eighty  years,  in  the  works  of  German  philo- 
sophers, and  in  the  writings  of  M.  Victor  Col'SJXI,  the 
brilliant  liCcturer  before  the  University  of  Paris,  this  German 
Pantheism  has  transformed  almost  all  the  educated  mind  of 
the  North.  It  has  pervaded  e\cry  sphere  of  life,  every  rank 
of  society,  and  every  department  of  thought.  It  has  given 
birth  to  almost  every  is7n  that  afflicts  that  people ;  and  these 
all,  representing  in  their  varied  forms  the  sum  of  modern 
infidelity,  have  found  their  focus  and  point  of  union  in  Abo- 
litionism. "^I'he  lost  and  lawle-s  spirit  of  the  ages,  up  from 
the  vasty  deep  of  error — this  has  been  animating  the  year- 
long crusade  upon  the  Southern  States.  It  declared  through 
Mr.  Burlingame,  some  j^ears  ago,  on  the  floor  of  the  United. 


20  'i^K  SOUTHERN   REVOLUTION. 

States  Congress, — "The  times  demand  and  we  must  have  an 
anti-slavery  Constitution,  an  anti-slavery  Bible,  and  an  anti- 
slavery  God ! "  Transcendentalism  in  politics!  Extermina,- 
tion  to  God !  It  declared  through  Mr.  Seward,  before  the 
Buffalo  Convention  of  1855, — "Slavery  must  and  can  be 
abolished.  You  and  I  can  and  must  do  it.  It  may  bring 
about  a  struggle  which  will  subvert  this  constitution ;  but 
slave-holders  sTaall  perish  in  the  struggle !  "  Rebellion  against 
the  government !  Extermination  to  the  whites  !  It  declared 
through  Mr.  Seward  again,  before  the  Chicago  Convention 
of  1860, — "  There  are  the  Southern  States,  with  the  finest 
territory  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  peopled  by  four  millions  of 
blacks.  That  territory  is  wanted  for  the  free  white  men  of 
the  North;  those  blacks  must  be  put  out  oi  the  way  !  "  Ex- 
termination to  the  blacks  !  It  declared  through  the  Reverend 
Beecher,  a  few  years  ago,  when  lifting  from  a  desecrated 
pulpit,  the  word  of  God,  he  exclaimed,  "  If  the  God  of  that 
Bible  be  the  God  of  slavery,  I  would  help  dethrone  Him 
from  the  universe !  "  Transcendentalism  in  the  pulpit !  As 
faithless  as  the  arch-deceiver,  more  merciless  than  the  grave; 
choosing,  rather  like  Milton's  Satan,  "to  reign  in  hell  than 
serve  in  heaven  ;  "  it  has  spoken  through  an  Abolition  press ; 
it  has  declaimed  from  Abolition  rostrums;  it  has  deceived 
through  Abolition  Statesmen ;  it  has  destroyed  through 
menial  armies;  it  did  "subvert  the  Constitution,"  in  the 
election  of  Mr  Lincoln  for  the  perdition  of  slave-holders — 
and  the  great  Republic  is  no  more !  Some  noble  spirits  tried 
to  avert  the  catastrophe  which  they  saw  approaching.  The 
great  Webster,  a  type  far  more  of  what  is  true  than  of  what 
was  false  in  New  England,  turned  first  in  one  direction 
and  then  in  another,  but  with  evident  hope  to  the  generous 
Southerner.  On  one  occasion  in  1850,  he  said  to  an  eminent 
gentleman  from  Maryland,* — "  Sir,  I  think  it  my  duty  to  say 
some  things  to  you  and  other  gentlemen  from  the  South,  of 

*  This  conversation  has  cever  before  been  published.  It  was  related^  to  me 
some  weeks  ago,  by  the  son  of  the  gentleman  referred  to,  now  an  officer  of  the 
Confederate  Government;  and  I  have  taken  the  liberty  to  insert  it  here. 


THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION.  21 

like  position  and  character.  In  my  opinion,  a  crisis  is  at 
hand  in  the  history  of  the  country.  The  mass  of  the  North- 
ern people  have  been  thoroughly  educated  in  Abolitionism. 
It  is  preached  from  the  pulpit,  it  pours  from  the  press,  it  is 
taught  in  the  schools,  it  is  imbibed  at  the  mother's  breast. 
The  feeling  is  with  them  a  religious  lentiment ;  and,  sir,  the 
day  is  near,  when  they  will  as  one  man  demand  of  the  South 
the  abolition  of  slavery,  Kow,  sir,  I  beg  that  3'ou.  and 
gentlmen  of  like  influence,  will  go  among  your  people,  and 
persuade  them  to  acquiesce  in  that  demand ;  for,  sir,  if  it  is 
not  peaceably  met,  the  country  is  ruined  !  "  "  Mr.  Webster," 
replied  the  gentlem.an,  "lam  both  surprised  and  grieved 
to  heaV  such  sentiments  from  you.  I  can  only  say  to  you, 
from  what  I  know  of  the  character  of  the  Southern  people, 
if  that  demand  ever  is  made,  the  sword  will  be  drawn,  and 
that  will  decide  the  issue."  On  another  occasion  that  noble 
statesman  poured  out  the  indignation  of  his  agonized  soul, 
on  the  destroyers  of  his  country,  in  this  language, — "If 
these  infernal  abolitionists  once  succeed  in  grasping  the 
powers  of  government,  they  will  overturn  the  Constitution, 
trample  on  all  law,  destroy  every  vested  right,  lay  violent 
hands  on  all  who  oppose  them,  and  overwhelm  the  country 
in  irretrievable  ruin."  Alas  !  that  the  tearful  prophecy  must 
needs  have  been  fulfilled.  Alas !  that  iniquity  could  have 
power  to  destroy  such  a  hopeful  national  life.  The  golden 
tongue  of  liberty  is  sealed,  and  unless  the  South  be  faithful, 
is  sealed  up  in  silence  forever ! 

"7Ae  chord,  the  harp's  full  chord  is  hushed; 

The  voice  hath  died  away, 
Whence  music,  like  sweet  waters,  gushed 

But  yesterday." 

It  is  evident  from  this  discussion,  that  the  question  of 
African  slavery  is  not  fundamental  to  this  revolution,  except 
so  far  as  it  involves  the  doctrine  of  the  providential  inferi- 
ority of  the  African  race.  That  institution  is  not  a  cause  of 
this  war,  but  simply  an  occasion  of  it.  It  is  only  the  ohject 
against   which   the   radicalism    of    the   North   has   arrayed 


22  THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION. 

itself  in  Abolitionism.  ITad  not  this  object  existed,  that 
Dragoa  from  the  bottomless  pit,  would  have  discovered  some 
other  eminence  of  Southern  life,  on  which  to' expend  its  fury. 
There  is  one  other  topic  to  which  I  must  refer,  noi-  only  to 
preserve  the  unity  of  this  discussion,  but  to  enter  mv  dissent 
from  certain  impressions  which  have  been  urgently  difiused 
in  public  and  private,  by  mouth  and  pen.  So  far  as  I  am 
aware,  there  has  been  but  one  prominent  exception  to  this 
general  procedure.  During  the  debate  in  the  Confederate 
Congress,  respecting  the  adoption  of  our  national  motto,  Deo 
vindice,  a  distinguished  Senator  from  Louisiana,  uttered  a  brief 
but  able  dii-'sent  from  the  clamor  which  I  am  about  to  oppose. 
It  is  proper,  as  well  as  necessary,  for  me  to  remark,-  what 
indeed,  this  argument  has  already  established,  that  Purilan- 
ism,  iwoiierhj  so  called,  has  7m  connextion  wJiaisoever,  toith  ihis 
inhuman  crusade  upon  the  Confederate  SlaV's.  With  all  due 
respect  to  those  who  think  differently,  I  must  confess  my 
amazement  at  the  persistency  with  which  some  have  bruited 
the  absurd  idea,  that  this  unprecedented  struggle — the  anom- 
aly of  all  history — is  a  renewal  of  the  strife  between  the  Pur- 
itan and  the  Cavalier !  And  I  know  not  how  to  account 
for  this  singular  phenomenon,  unless  it  may  be  ascribed  to 
ignorance  or  _  to  passion,  I  say,  to  ignorance  or  to  passion  ; 
for  surely  there  are  none  among  us  who  would  have  this  to  be 
the  price  of  our  incalculable  sufferings — a  condition  of  so- 
ciety in  church  and  state,  that  shall  inure  to  the  special 
benefit  of  certain  mythical  individuals  styled  C  ivaliers,  and 
their  descendants  or  adherents !  If  so,  the  Southern  people 
will  repudiate  an  ipsue  for  which  they  are  ignorantly  sacri- 
ficing their  all.  Who  are  these  Cavaliers  ?  Where  have 
they  'ever  been  in  any  considerable  numbers  upon  this 
continent?  Call  up  the  men  who  composed  the  Virginia 
Convention  of  1776,  and  ask  them  from  what  stock  they 
came,  by  birth  and  training,  and  by  election.  Were  they 
Cavaliers  in  blood  or  in  principle?  Almost  without  ex- 
ception,   their    descent    was    lluguenot,    Scotch    and    Irish. 


THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION.  2S 

"0!  that  the  history  of  such  a  race  were  worthily  written.  0! 
that  our  hit-toriacs,  inster'd  of  bt-ginning  and  ending  with  the  acts  of 
the  begjiarly  governors,  who  for  a  century  and  a  half,  were  sent  over 
to  fatten  on  the  revenues  of  the  Colony,  and  calling  such  a  record, 
Virginia's  hijtory,  had  looked  to  the  races  from  which  this  glorious 
stock  h;id  risen,  their  high  spirit,  tbeir  burning  patriotism  !  These 
writers  tell  us  that,  these  noble  qualities  have  been  derived  from  a  cla>*«s  of 
men  who  came  over  from  time  to  time,  few  and  far  between,  and  under 
the  name  of  Cavaliers,  sought  a  livelihood  in  the  Colony.  BJisertvble  fig- 
ment I  Outrageous  calumny !  Why,  sir,  the  Cavalier  was  essentially 
a  slave — a  compound  slave — a  slave  to  the  king  and  a  slave  to  the 
cburcb.  He  was  the  last,  man  in  the  world  from  whom  any  great  ele- 
mental principle  of  liberty  and  law  could  come.  He  was  as  incapable 
of  transmitting  such  a  principle  to  others,  as  he  was  of  conceiving  it 
himself.  It  is  true  that  some  of  this  class  did  come  over  at  intervals. 
Some  came  with  the  gallant  John  Smith;  but  when  he  found  out  how 
worthless  they  were,  he  implored  the  Virginia  Company  to  send  no 
more.  Even  the  gallant  SiMiTH  himself,  left  the  colony  after  a  short 
sojourn,  and  was  soon  followed  by  Percy,  whom  the  first  honors  of  tho 
Colony  could  not  tempt  to  remain  within  its  borders.  But  when  the. 
great  gold  shipment  turned  to  dross,  the  Cavalier  came  no  more.  A 
home  in  th%  wilderness,  to  be  cleared  by  his  own  axe,  and  guarded  by 
his  own  musket,  against  a  wily  foe,  was  no  place  for  the  voluptuary 
and  tho  idler.  — Sir,  I  look  with  contempt  on  that  miserable  figment, 
which  has  so  long  held  a  place  in  our  histories,  and  which  seeks  to  trace 
the  distinguibhing  and  salient  points  of  the  Virginia  character,  to  the 
ii-'fluence  of  those  butterflies  of  the  British  aristocracy,  who,  unable  to 
earn  their  bread  at  home,  came  over  to  the  Colony  to  feed  on  whatever 
crumbs  they  might  gather  in  some  petty  office,  or  from  the  racecourse, 
or  from  the  gsniing  table,  instead  of  regarding  those  distinctive  traits 
as  the  legitimate  results  of  a  great  Anglo-Saxon  people,  placed  in  a 
position  of  all  others,  best  adapted  to  the  full  and  generous  develop- 
ment of  their  peculiar  virtues.  The  secret  of  our  colonial  history  lies 
far  deeper  If  you  will  look  back  into  the  reigns  of  Henry  the  Eighth, 
and  Eliz-ibeih,  you  will  find  some  of  the  causes  which  led  to  the  settle- 
ment of  V^iigiuia. — Still  there  was  in  the  Colony,  a  distinct  Cavalier 
class,  not  vfhulij  contemptible  in  numbers,  but  more  potent  in  influence, 
which  partook  of  the  character  that  marked  the  foreign  original,  and 
which  in  its  modes  of  life,  imitated  English  manners,  practiced  liinglish 


24  THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION. 

sports,  cheribbed  English  prejudices,  and  were  proud  of  the  glory  of 
England,  not  in  its  loftiest  development,  but  as  casting  its  brightness, 
of  all  others  in  the  Colony,  on  itself.  But  even  to  this  class,  some, 
who  could  trace  a  legitimate  descent  from  those  who  came  over  after 
the  discomfiture  and  death  of  Charles,  did  not  belong.  Their  descend- 
ants differed  materially  from  their  ancestors.  The  architects  of  their 
own  fortune,  reared  in  that  noblest  of  all  schools,  the  school  of  poverty, 
they  had  mingled  freely  with  the  people,  and  shared  their  pursuits; 
and  thus  not  only  lost  their  hereditary  prejudices,  but  adopted  popular 
views,  and  became  the  most  strenuous  supporters  of  the  very  principles 
from  which  their  ancestors  would  have  recoiled.  It  was  the  spirit  of 
Anglo  Saxon  liberty,  inculf^ated  for  generations,  by  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances of  the  Colony  in  their  race,  that  made  the  names  of  Washington, 
George  Mason,  and  the  Lees,  a  bulwark  in  the  cause  of  independence. 
But  neither  of  these  was  the  representative  of  the  party  to  which,  hy 
the  accident  of  birth  he  belonged. — How  that  Convention  would 
have  laughed  to  scorn  the  notion  that  they,  and  those  who  chose  them, 
owed  their  high  courage,  their  keen  sense  of  wrong,  their  exalted  love 
of  liberty  in  church  and  state,  to  a  set  of  vagrants  and  office  holders, 
who  never  drew  a  sword  but  in  defence  of  a  tyrant  king,  and  whose 
highest  ambition  sought  only  the  petty  honors  which  a  tjrant  deemed 
high  enough  for  his  tools  in  a  distant  Colony !  Pure  .and  devoted 
patriots  !  they  knew  full  well  that  their  love  of  liberty,  their  hatred  of 
wrong,  their  unflinching  courage,  came  from  another  quarter.  What- 
ever merits  their  fathers,  or  their  lathers'  fathers  possessed,  were  all 
their  own* — And  let  me  say  to  you,  sir,  how  much  more  noble  it  is,  as 
well  as  more  true,  how  much  more  congenial  to  the  pride  and  honor  of 
the  Virginian,  to  reflect  that  the  virtues  of  his  fathers  are  to  be  traced, 
not  to  a  race  of  men  whose  whole  career  was  one  long,  bitter  and  bloody 
protest  against  civil  and  religious  freedom;  but  to  the  fjreat  Anglo • 
Saxon  family,  whose  swords  were  never  drawn  in  vain,  and  before  whom 
the  hosts  of  the  Cavalier  in  the  old  world,  were  driven  as  chafi'  before 
the  wind! — Such  were  the  men,  who  in  the  council  and  in  the  field, 
achieved  the  Revolution.  So  far  from  the  Cavalier  influence  bringing 
about  the  Revolatiou,  the  Revolution  was  brought  about  in  spite  of  the 
Cavalier.  The  three  greatest  test  measures  of  that  epoch,  were  the 
resolutions  of  Henry,  in  1765,  against  the  stamp  act;  the  resolutions 
of  the  same  individual  in  the  Convention  of  March,  1775,  for  putting 
the  Colony  into  military  array;    and  the  resolution    instructing   the 


THE  SOUTHERN"  REVOLUTION.  25 

.delegates  in  Congress  to  propose  independence.  Of  all  these  measures, 
the  Cavalier  party,  as  a  party,  was  the  stoutest  opponent."* 

Clearly  the  vast  majoritj  of  the  first  and  later  settlers  in 
.Virginia  and  the  Southern  Colonies,  were  not  Cavaliers;  and 
the  immense  majority  of  the  present  population  of  these  States, 
are  of  any  but  Cavalier  origin.     The  large  majority  of ,  the  set- 

•:  tiers  in  the  Northern  Colonies,  were  not  Puritans ;  and  the  vast 
majority  of  the  present  Northern  population,  are  of, any  but 
.Puritan  origin.     It  has  been  estimated  that  twelve  millions  of 

■.the  present  population  of  twenty  millions  in  the  United 
States,  are  foreigners,  and  their  immediate  descendants,  the 
worst  elements  chiefly  of  European  societ}^ ;  and  of  the  re- 
maining eight  millions,  but  a  small  portion  aye  of  Puritan 

.descent,  and  a  still  smaller  portion  of  any  Puritan  faith. 
Let  it  be  remembered  that  this  contest  is  of  the  whole  South 

■against  the  whole  North ;  I  mean  all  the  representative  ele- 
ments of  the  one,  against  all  the  representative  elements  of 

'the  other. 

Who  were  the  Puritans  ?  The  term  Puritan,  had  a  three- 
fold application  with  reference  to  morals,  doctrine  Siud  politics. 

.In  the  almost  exact  language  of  Me.  Neal,  the  acknowledged 

standard  authority  upon  this  subject,  this  term  came  to  be 

applied  as  an  epithet,  iir.st  in  Engla^nd,  in  the  year    1564, 

when  it  was  urged  upon  the  clerg}^  of  the  several  dioceses  to 

subscribe  to  the  ceremonies,  liturgy  and  discipline  of  the 

Established  Church,  precisely  as  they  then  existed  ;  thqse 

#"The  Virginia  Contention  of  1776. — A  discourse  delivered  before  the 
.Virginia  Alpha  of  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society,  ia  the  chapel  of  William  and 
Mary  College,  in  the  city  of  Williamsburg,  on  the  afternoon  of  July  3rd,  1855, 
by  Hugh  Blair  Grigsby.  Published  by  a  resolution  of  the  Society." — In  (his 
discourse  this  accomplished  gentlemen  shows  that  the  original  stock  of  Virginia 
was  mostly  Huguenot,  German,  Scotch  and  Irish ;  that  the  Cavalier  element  was 
small  in  her  colonial  era;  that  most  of  that  class  proved  utterly  "worthless;" 
and  th.it  the  worthy  but  distinct  Cavalier  class  who  did  contribute  to  the  power 
of  Southern  life,  gained  influence  only  by  adopting  popular  view?,  aad  by  sup- 
porting the  very  principles  from  which  their  ancestois  would  have  recoiled. 
These  points  Mr.  Grigsby  proves  by  references  to  historical  documents  and  to  the 
law-suit  history  of  the  colonial  era,  and  by  indicating  the  history  of  some  of  the 
leading  families  of  Virginia,  the  names  of  whose  founders  he  cites. — See  Dis 
course,  especially  pp.  ZQ—ii.      The  italics  are  mine. 

4 


26  THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION'. 

■who  refused  were  called  Puritans,  a  name  of  reproacli,  de- 
rived from  the  Catliari  or  Puritani  of  the  third  century  after 
Christ ;  though  correct  enough  to  signify  their  desires  for 
what  they  deemed  a  purer  form  of  religious  worship.  When 
the  doctrines  of  Arminius  took  place  in  the  latter  end  of  the 
reign  of  James  T,  those  who  adhered  to  Calvin's  explanation 
of  the  five  disputed  points — a  part  of  which  was  embodied  in 
the  Seventeenth  Article  of  the  noble  creed  of  the  Church  of 
England — were  called  Doctrinal  Puritans.  "At  length,  says 
Mr.  Fuller,  the  name  was  improved,  to  stigmatize  all  those 
who  endeavored  in  their  devotions  to  accompany  the  minister 
with  a  pure  heart,  and  were  unusually  pure  in  their  lives. 
Queen  Elizabeth,  having  conceived  a  strong  aversion  to  these 
people,  turned  all  her  artillery  against  them ;  for,  besides  the 
ordinary  court  of  the  bishops,  her  majesty  appointed  a  new 
tribunal,  called  the  Court  of  High  Commissions,  which  sus- 
pended and  deprived  men  of  their  livings,  not  by  the  verdict 
of  twelve  men  upon  oath,  but  by  the  sovereign  determination 
of  three  commissioners  of  her  majesty's  own  nomination — 
their  sentence  founded  not  upon  the  statute  laws  of  the  realm, 
but  upon  the  bottomless  deep  of  the  canon  law ;  and  instead 
of  producing  witnesses  in  open  court  to  prove  the  charge, 
they  assumed  the  power  of  administering  an  oath,  ex  officio, 
whereby  the  prisoner  was  obliged  to  answer  all  questions  put 
to  him,  though  never  so  prejudicial  to  his  own  defence ;  if  he 
refused  to  swear,  he  was  imprisoned  for  contempt ;  and  if  he 
took  the  oath,  he  was  convicted  upon  his  own  confession !  "^ 
All  who  opposed  this  mode  of  procedure  vf  ere  called  Puritans. 
The  Puritans,  therefore,  included  all  the  lovers  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty  in  that  age,  but  especially  in  the  English 
Church  and  State.  Doubtless,  there  were  extremists  among 
them,  as  there  have  always  been  among  all  parties.  After  the 
Eestoration,  many  of  them  came  to  be  known  as  Independents ; 
and  to  these,  especially  in  America,  the  name  Puritans,  has 
been  adroitly  confined  ;  some  of  ihem  came  to  be  known  as 
Baptists  ;  some  as  Presbyterians  ;  many  of  them  were  Episco  - 
*  Ilisiory  of  I  he  Puri'ane,  Preface  p.lQ 


THE   SOUTPIKRN   PwEVOLUTIOX.  27 

palians,  among  the  brigliest  ornaments  of  the  Church  of 
England,  some  of  whom  were  leaders  even  in  the  long  Parlia- 
ment though  they  did  not  all  separate  from  the  Established 
Church  ;  and  some  of  these  Puritans  were  men  of  no  religious 
persuasion,  who  opposed  the  prevailing  ideas  in  Church  and 
State,  purely  on  political  grounds.  Especially,  was  this  epi- 
thet Puritan,  flung  at  tho^^e  who  advocated  purity  of  life  in 
opposition  to  the  disgusting  immoralities  of  the  age ;  the 
epithet  Cavalier,  was  hurled  with  equal  vehemence  at  the 
other  side.  The  extremes  of  these  parties,  on  this  idea,  were 
extremes  cf  English  character  in  two  opposite  directions ; 
the  one  was  licentiousness,  the  other  asceticism;  both  untrue 
and  reprehensible. 

What,  then,  was  Puritanism  ?  It  was  the  protest  of  a  large 
and  influential  oortion  of  the  Established  Church  of  En<r- 
land,  against  what  they  deemed  the  errors  and  abuses  of  the 
prevailing  Mediaeval  ecclesiasticisra ;  '•'  to  which  not  the  supe- 
rior clergy  of  that  church  alone,  but  the  princes  as  well,  from 
Elizabeth  to  James  Second,  clung  with  such  perverse  and 
pernicious  tenacity.  The  great  point  of  divergence  and  con- 
trovert;}-, between  the  Puritans  and  their  opponents,  was  the 
the  rigid  of  the  civil  poiver,  not  to  impose  articles  of  belief,  but 
to  decree  rites  and  ceremonies,  to  determine  the  government 
of  tloe  church,  to  evacuate  its  discipline,  and  to  dictate  its 
Avorsliin.  This  was  what  the  Crown  claimed,  what  the  Court 
piirty  coutended'foi',  and  what  the  Puritans  opposed.  *  This, 
properly  speaking,  was  Puritanism — nothing  more,  nothing 
loss  :  it  asserted  the  freedom  of  the  church,  from  the  state  and 
from  all  despotic  Roman  ideas — the  complete  distinction  be- 
tween the  civil  power  and  the  ecclesiastical,  and  between 
their  respective  spheres  of  action.  That  work  done,  the 
real  posture  of  Puritanism  was  deiined,  and  its  course 
closed  forever.  This  explains  why  Mr,  Hume,  the  historian. 
Lord  Brougham,  and  Mr.  Macaulay,  out  of  no  partiality 
for  the  Puritans,  unite  in  the  brilliant  testimony  that,  Eng- 
land is  indebted  to  the  Puritans  for  every  principle  of  liberty, 
*5.  P.  Rcvieu',  Oc' ,  1362,  A  L  Punians. 


2S  THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTIOIf. 

in  the  constitutions  of  lier  cliiircli  and  state.  Comparatively,- 
the  Reformation  freed  the  state  from  the  despotism  of  the 
church ;  Puritanism  freed  the  church  from'  the  despotism  of 
the  state.  The  one  was  the  complement  of  the  other;  the 
two  were  inseparable  terms  of  the  same  great  logic  of  history. 
But  is  not  this  principle,  the  freedom  of  the  church  from  the 
state,  recognized  by  all  among  us  as  a  deep-laid  element  of 
Southern  life?  Does  it  not  inhere  in  the  very  essence  of  that 
life?  lu  denouncing  Paritanism,  then,  we  are  condemning 
ourselves,  unless  we  are  prepared  to  renounce  that  blood- 
bought  ^3rmci^?e.  And  surely  there  is  not  one  who  will  not 
declare  out  of  the  heart  of  this  civilization — by  that  principle 
which  af&rms  that  the  church  shall  be  free  from  the  state, 
that  the  civil  power  shall  never  encroach  upon  the  majestic 
prerogatives  of  Christ's  Crown  and  Covenant — by  that  prin- 
ciple I  am  prepared  to  stand,  and  if  needs  be,  I  am  prepared 
to  die.  The  Reformers  contended  for  their  rights  as  thought- 
nnen  ;  The  Puritans  for  their  rights  as  cliurch-men ;  our  fathers 
in  the  first  American  Revolution,  for  their  chartered  rights 
as  Englishmen ;  but  we,  merging  all  these  ideas  in  one,  and 
standing  on  higher  and  broader  ground — we  are  contending 
for  our  inherent  rights  as  men  slmjily :  for  the  rights  of  self- 
government  that  inhere'  in  us  organically,  and  by  Covenant 
as  members  of  the  race.  What  relation,  then,  does  Puritanism 
bear  to  this  Revolution  ?  Are  we  battling  to  free  the  church 
from  the  State,  or  the  state  from  the'  spates'?  Are  we  com- 
batting an}'  Mediaeval  idea,  except  that  of  brutal  despotism  ? 
What  relation  then,  I  repeat,  does  Puritanism  bear  to  this 
Revolution,  except  as  it  lends  a  part  of  the  inspiration  which 
the  nobler  past  contributes  to  the  grandeitr  of  the  hour? 

This  view  of  Puritanism  does  not  imply  any  approval  of 
the  wrong  results,  to  which  extremists  of  the  Puritan  party, 
have  too  often  carried  their  illogical  notions.  The  exti-emes 
to  which  a  principle  may  be  carried  by  professed  adherents, 
are  never  to  be  ascribed  to  the  principle  itself.  Democracy 
is  not  republicanism ;  asceticism  is  not  morcility  ;  nor  is  a 
rational  indulgence  in  the  pleasures  of  this  life,  compatible 


THE   SOUTHERN   REVOLUTIOiS".  29' 

Tvi'tli  licentiousness,  nor  religion  with  superstition.  The  prin-- 
ciple  of  Independency  is  more  nearly  connected  with  that  of 
modern  philosophical  atheism,  than  with  Paritanism.  The 
Independents  were  but  a  small  segment  of  the  grand  Puritan^ 
movement.  By  virtue  of  other  ideas,  gotten  from  the  Re- 
formed theology  which  they  held,  but  afterwards  abandoned, 
they  wrought  upon  the  outskirts  of  that  great  movement; 
even  as  clouds  sometimes  gather  around  the  juid-day  sun.- 
At  best,  the  early  settlers  of  New  England,  were  extremists 
of  the  Puritan  party'  Having  approached  from  another 
stand-point,  though  against  their  knowledge  and  design,  the 
principle  of  modern  infidelity ;  they  carried  an  extreme  indi- 
vidualism from  their  doctrine  of  church-order  into  theology, 
into  politics,  and  into  social  order.  After  the  ridiculous  fail- 
ures in  speculative  theology  of  the  pigmy  imitators  of  Jona- 
than Edwards,  many  of  their  descendants  took  refuge  from  a 
heartless  religion  and  morality  in  genteel  Deism  or  senti- 
mental Christianity.  Thus  they  became  more  readily  recep- 
tive of  the  congenial  German  Transcendentalism.  And  when 
met  at  last  by  the  alternative  of  abandoning  their  doctrine 
of  the  church,  for  one  more  conservative,  as  the  only  means 
of  perfecting  and  preserving  a  true  theolog}^,  or  of  retaining 
that  doctrine  and  receiving  a  deadly  philosophy ;  they  ac- 
cepted the  latter  and  then  became,  but  not  till  then,  the  most 
rotten  and  malarious  element  in  American  civilization.  But 
by  the  very  laws  of  the  moral  universe,  that  principle  must 
needs  have  run  its  course ;  until,  like  a  lawless  star  or  a 
baleful  meteor,  it  should  explode  upon  some  fairest  spot  of 
earth,  or  sink  into  the  blackness  of  darkness  forever.  Many 
of  the  later  and  earlier  developments  of  the  Plymouth  colon- 
ists and  their  descendants,  were  not  the  growth  of  Puritanism. 
The  notorious  Code  of  Blue  laws,  for  example,  was  not  even 
a  natural  excresence  upon  the  bod.y ;  the  sickly  production 
of  a  renegade  minister  from  the  Church  of  England,  it  had 
an  irregular  existence,  and  then  sank  into  contempt.  Did 
some  of  the  Puritans  incur  the  cletestable  guilt  of  persecution  ? 
They  retaliated  upon  Cavaliers,  the  vice  which  they  had  suf- 


30  THE   SOUTHERN   REVOLUTION. 

fered  at  their  hands,  and  from  whom  they  learned  the  art. 
They  persecuted  at  intervals,  through  an  hundred  and  fifty 
years ;  Cavaliers  and  Prelates  persecuted  through  hundreds 
'of  3^ears,  with  a  ferocity,  disarmed  at  last  only  by  the  loss  of 
power.  Every  sect  in  Christendom,  that  has  had  the  power, 
"iias  likewise  persecuted.  John  Calvin  may  not  be  free  from 
the  charge  of  persecution  in  the  case  of  Servetus ;  though 
he  certainly  is  more  free  than  some  would  insist.  Presbyterians 
■of  the  Established  Church  of  Scotlai>d,  have  conducted  legal 
persecutions  against  their  brethern  of  the  Free  Church. 
Archbishop  Laud,  of  the  English  Establishment,  hunted  the 
Covenanters  over  the  bleak  heathers,  and  through  the  moun  ■ 
tain-gorges  of  Scotland,  The  once  Established  Church  of  Vir- 
ginia, persecuted  "  dissenters  "  in  elder  days,  side  by  side  with 
the  New  England  Puritans.  But  is  such  violence  to  be  ascribed 
to  the  real  principles  of  these  parties,  or  rather  to  a  wrong 
Mediaeval  education,  continued  through  hundreds  of  years, 
which  taught  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of  persecution, 
and  from  which  all  Christendom  has  been  slow  to  recover  ? 
It  is  a  savage  rule  that  would  defame  any  class  of  men,  for 
the  crimes  of  apostate  descendants,  or  for  the  wrongs  of  mis- 
taken ancestors.  Did  the  earlier  people  of  New  England, 
remove  slavery  ?  They  did  so  chiefly  from  motives  of  self 
interest.  Any  of  these  States  would  do  likewise  to-day,  and 
the  attempt  has  been  made  more  than  once  in  Southern  his- 
tory. But  that  is  not  abolitionism ;  its  principle  is  that 
slavery  is  sinful  in  itself,  and  is  therefore  a  moral,-  social  and 
Ijolitical  evil.  On  the  other  hand,  the  ablest  defence  of  the 
African  slave-trade,  and,  by  implication,  of  the  institution  of 
domestic  slavery,  ever  written,  emanated  from  the  celebrated 
divine,  JONATHAN"  Edwards;  it  was  reproduced  in  another 
less  able,  by  one  of  his  pupils.  The  recent  exertions  of  such 
New  England  men  as  the  Eev.  Dr.  Lord,  of  Dartmouth 
College,  the  Key.  Dr.  Adams,  of  Boston,  and  Prof.  S.  F.  B. 
Morse,  in  the  interest  of  the  South,  are  well  known.  Least  of 
all  has  later  New  England  fanaticism  any  connection  with  Puri- 
tanism.    On  the  contrary,  it  has  for  more  than  half  a  century, 


THE  SOUTHEUN  KEVOLUTIOX.  32 

repudiated  every  principle  of  tlie  Puritan  faith — all  its  rev- 
erence for  the  Word  of  God,  for  the  authority  of  the  Church, 
for  the  prerogatives  of  the  King,  or  of  the  Constitution.  Let 
it  be  remembered  that  the  Abolitionism  of  New  England 
lias  had  an  existence  of  about  forty  years.  Of  a  purely  Eng- 
lish origin,  it  was  imported  in  the  doctrines  of  Wilberforcc 
and  Clarkson,  and  in  the  lectures  of  George  Thompson.  Nor 
did  it  take  root  in  the  New  England  mind  until,  by  false 
philosophies,  likewise  imported,  that  mind  had  been  educated 
away  from  every  principle  ol  its  earlier  and'more  conservative, 
though  very  defective  faith.  What  I  distinctly  assert,  is  that 
neither  the  Puritanism  of  England  nor  what  there  teas  of 
Puritanism  in  ISiew  England,  held  a  single  idea  in  common 
with  Northern  fanaticism ;  that  is  the  growth  of  European 
infidelity,  farvored  by  the  extremes  to  which  the  Pilgrims 
carried  the  prinr-iple  (d  individual  liberty.  Surely,  then,  it 
is  to  be  deeply  regretted,  that  what  deserves  praise,  should 
have  been  identified  under  the  name  of  Puritanism,  with  that 
which  it  abhors,  and  made  the  object  of  indiscriminate  denun- 
ciation. So  far  has  this  noisy  spirit  gone,  as  to  apply  to  the 
late  lamented  Jackson  the  epithets  "Puritan,"  "Covenanter" 
"stern  Cameronean."  As  if  these  terms  were  synonymous! 
As  if  such  a  cloudlet,  from  the  low  grounds  of  prejudice  or 
ignorance,  could  do  aught  else  than  melt  away  before  un- 
dying glory  !  Let  us  not  be  led  off  by  superficial  or  design- 
ing thinkers,#from  the  real  causes  of  our  trouble.  We  are 
fighting,  not  Puritanism,  but  a  false  philosophy,  which  would 
ruin  us  as  it  has  ruined  the  great  Republic.  Nor  let  us  belie  the 
nobleness  of  Southern  character,  by  upholding  such  men  in 
flippant  or  covert  calumnies  upon  illustrious  names  aniong 
the  living  and  the  dead. 

In  this  connection  let  me  say  a  word  in  passing  which  is 
demanded  by  the  simplest  justice.  Let  me  not  be  regarded  as 
a  partisan  defender  of  the  Puritans,  or  as  speaking  in  any  de- 
nominational sense,  because  I  have  uttered  somewhat  in  their 
favor.  I  speak  only  in  the  interest  of  an  enlightened  patriot- 
ism and   common  Christianity.      Born  in    the  Presbyterian 


.82  TUE   SOUTHERN    REVOLUTION". 

'Church;  a  Southern  Presbyterian  by  the  training  of  my 
'whole  life,  I  have  never  been  identified  with  the  least  of  Puri- 
tan interests  through  blood  or  policy.  My  family  blood  and 
:the  blcod  of  my  fathers  before  me,  have  been  shed  for  the  priu- 

■  ciples  that  underlie  this  Revolution.  ^My  own  life  beats  in 
•sympathy  with  its  profoundest  elements  and  yearns  for  its 

highest  and  purest  success.     As  a  Presbyterian  minister  I  feel 

■no  attraction  to  such  a  defence>other  than  that  which  fidelity 
to  historic  truth  imposes.     It  is  far  from  true  that  the  religious 
economy  with  which  I  have  the  honor  to  be  identified  is  con- 
genial with  New  England  Puritanism,  or  w^as  congenital  with 

•it,  as  some  would  inculcate.  Neither  was  derived  from  the 
other  ;  much  less  are  they  identical.  The  Presb3'-terian  .sys- 
tem holds  but  two  points  in  common  with  the  elder  Puyitan- 

iism ;  namely,  the  principle  of  the  freedom  of  the  Church  from 
the  State,  and  the  doctrine  which,  as  stated  by  the  English 

.Church  Puritan  Eeformers,  of  the  Genevan  School  of  theolo- 
gy, centres  in  the  Seventeenth  Article  of  the  creed  of, the 
Church  of  England,  and  pervades  her  excellent  liturgy. 
•Would  it  not  be  a  shameful  outrage  to  charge  the  wrongs  of 
Puritan  extremists  on  that  noble  church,  because  Puritanism 
arose  in  her  bosom,  the  protest  of  her   evangelical  life,  em- 

I braced. man}'-  of  her  noblest  intellects,  and  moved  for  a  time 

•along  a  common  line  of  history  with  her ;  or  because  among 
the  bitterest  enemies  of  the  South  is  the  Cabinet  of  Great 

•Britain,  composed  of  men,  who   are  English  •Church-men  as 

■  well  as  British  diplomatists?  Would  it  not  be  equally  un- 
just to  lay  a  similar  charge  upon  any  American  Church,  be- 

■  cause  so  man}^  of  her  clerg}^  and  laity  have  arrayed  them- 
selves on  the  side  of  New  England  fanaticism  in  bitterest  hos- 
tility to  the  Confederate  States  ?     How  much  more  to  charge 

•  the  errors  or  even  the  character  of  Puritanism  upon  the  Pres- 
byterian Church,  because  these  two  sj'^stems  were  at  times  his- 
torically united,  when  both  in  their  origin,  principles,  and 
subsequent  career,  they  have  been  utterly  distinct,  and  often 
fiercely  antagonistic  both  in  English  and  American  history. 
.Puritanism  arose  in  the  latter  half  of  the  Sixteenth  Century  ; 


THE  SOUTHEKX  REVOLUTION.  33 

"the  Presbyterian  Cburcli  was  in  existence,  not  in  decrepi- 
tude, not  in  decay,  but  in  unimpaired  vigor,  in  uncorrupted 
integrity,  before  Henry  the  Eighth  had  renounced  the  supre- 
macy of  the  Pope ;  before  Calvin  had  given  his  immortal  in- 
stitutes to  the  world,  or  Luther  had  translated  the  Word  of 
God  into  the  German  tongue ;  before  the  Southern  provinces  of 
France  had  been  stained  with  the  blood  of  the  martyred  Al- 
bigeois ;  before  the  morning  star  of  the  Eeformation  had 
arisen  on  England  ;  before  Charlemagne  had  restored  the  Em- 
pire of  the  West."'-^  Puritanism  arose  in  England,  in  the 
church  of  England,  of  which  the  Puritans  were  a  powerful 
party ;  the  centre  of  Presbyterian  ideas  in  that  day  was  Gene- 
va in  Switzerland.  Tlie  Puritans  were  English,  purely  Eng- 
lish ;  Presbyterians  were  chiefly  Swiss,  French,  Scotch  and 
Irish.  The  fundamental  principle  of  Puritanism  was  that  the 
Church  should  be  free  from  all  control  by  the  State,  and  from 
all  Mediaeval  ideas  ;  the  fundamental  principle  of  Presbyte- 
rianism  has  ever  been  that  the  written  Word  of  God  is  the 
only  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  practice ;  it  fosters  proper 
obedience  to  appointed  constitutional  authority  in  things  hu- 
man and  divine.  The  animus  and  the  specific  relations  of 
Puritanism  were  partly  political ;  Presbyterianism  is  a  system 
purely  religious,  evangelical ;  it,  therefore,  never  has  flourish- 
ed, and  never  can,  in  confiection  with  the  State.  The  form  of 
government  in  those  congregations  commonly  termed  Puritan 
is  a  pure  democracy,  giving  unrestrained  freedom  to  all  indi- 
vidual tendencies  ;  the'  form  of  government  in  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  is  a  representative  republicanism,  in  which  all 
power  is  conserved  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  and  individual  ten- 
dencies are  effectually  checked  by  authoritative  courts  of 
review  and  control,  combining  equal  representation  from  the 
clergy  and  the  people.  We  fought  the  Cromwell  Puritans 
during  the  civil  wars  in  England ;  we  fought  the  Indepen- 
dents over  the  floor  of  the  Westminister  Assembly.  The 
famous  disruption  of  tlie  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  late 
United  States,  into  Old  and  New  School,  so  early  as  1837, 

*^.  P.  Review,   Oc'.,  18C2,  Arf.  Puritans. 

5 


34  THE  SOUTHEEN  REVOLUTION. 

was  tlie  result  of  an  effort  on  tbe  part  of  Ne w  Englandism^ 
to  engraft  its  radical  tendencies  on  the  government,  faith  and 
practice  of   the  Presbyterian  Church,  *     In  this  Kevolution, 
the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the   Coni^derate  States,  true  to 
her  historic  principles,  has  taken  her  full  'share,  as  one  re- 
lio-ious  element  of  the  South,  of  toil  and  suffering  and  success. 
But  her  record  needs  no  illustration  from  me.     The  once 
living  Jackson,  was  her  type  and  representative.     So  in  their 
measure  were  such  as  Cobb,  and  Semmes,  'and  Tracy,  and 
D.  H.  Hill,  and  Dabney  Carr  Harrison.    Such  as  Inglis, 
of  South  Carolina,  and  the  lamented  Yancey,  of  Alabama, 
NiSBET,  of  Georgia,  and  Tucker,  of  Virginia,  have  repre- 
sented in  politics,  her  training.     The  lamented  Thoenwell, 
of  South   Carolina,   and  the  living  Palmer,  of  Louisiana, 
Dabney,  and  Hoge,  and  Moore,  of  Virginia,  and  Stiles,  of 
Georgia,  have  represented  her  in  the  pulpit.     Her  clergy  and 
her  people,  at  home  and  in  the  field,  have  followed  these  illus- 
trious spirits  with  utmost  devotion  to  the  Southern  cause. 
It  is,  therefore,  a  gross  historical  anachronism,  to  confound  or 
identify  the  Presbyterian   Church,  with  Puritanism,  real  or 
alleged.     The  bare  intimation  of  such  an  idea,  is  a  perver- 
sion of  historic  truth. 

My  own  antipathies,  therefore,  and  they  are  as  stern  as  the 
mountain-crags  of  Scotland,  or  as  the  Alps  around  Geneva — 
would  have  induced  me,  at  least,  to  pass  over  this  popular  fal- 
lacy with  assenting  silence.  But  in  considering  the  subject  be- 
fore us,  I  found  it  impossible  to  avoid  noticing  the  historic  pos- 
ture of  Puritanism,  because  some  have  labored  to  force  it  upon 
the  public  mind,  in  a  false  relation  to  this  American  war. 
And  in  presenting  such  notice,  it  is  equally  impossible  for 
any  candid  student  of  history,  to  avoid  giving  the  Puritans 
their  due.     Whatever  may  be  our  aversion  to  any  phase  of 

*  This  statement  does  not  involve  the  New  School  Presbyterians  of  these 
States,  in  the  charge  of  fanaticism.  Most,  if  not  all,  of  these  withdrew,  with 
the  New  School  party, -from  the  General  Assembly  of  1837,  on  the  ground  that 
the  exscinding  acts  were  unconstitutional.  Oa  the  question  of  slavery,  they  sepa- 
rated from  the  Northern  portion  of  their  own  body,  sometime  before  the 
secession  of  these  States  from  the  Federal  Union. 


THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION.  35 

Puritanism,  historic  fidelity  compels  the  acknowledgement, 
that  the  Puritans  with  all  their  faults,  accomplished  great 
good  in  their  day — they  freed  the  church  from  the  despotism 
of. the  State,  and  I  honor  them  for  the  work ;    that  they  have 
ceased  to  be  a  special  influence  in  American  life,  for  more 
than  sixty  years ;    and  they  must  be  denied  all  claim  to  a 
place  ymong  the  causes  that  have  hurled  this  appalling  cru- 
sade upon  the  existence  of  the  Confederate  States.     In  the 
name  of  all  that  is  grand  in  this  Revolution,  I  enter  my  pro- 
test against  the  malignant  bombast  that  would  degrade  it  in- 
to a  renewal  of  the  mythical  strife  between  the  Puritan  and 
the  Cavalier.     It  is  infinitely  removed  from  that  petty  feud. 
Nor  does  the  contest  between  the  Puritans  and  their  real 
opponents,  bear  any  analogy  to  this  uniDrecedented  struggle, 
except  in  the   common   point  of  resistence   to   oppression  ; 
though  in  that  point,  the  analogy  is  as  grand  as  the  issues  at 
stake.     Contending,  as  Ave  are,  for  the  right  of  self-govern- 
ment,  and   for   purity  of  faith   and  practice  in  politics,   in 
religion,  and  in  social  order,  we — not  the  Pantheistic  despots 
of  New  England — but  we  of  the  South,  are  the  Puritans  of 
this  controversy,  if  any  Puritans  in  it  there  be.     Gathering 
up  all  the  elements  of  Southern  life — religious,  political,  and 
social,  againtt  all  the  elements  ot  Northern  life — religious, 
political,   and  social — this   Revolution   is   a   grand   historic 
protest    against    philosophic    infidelity     and    disorganizing 
wrong.     Obeying  an  imperative   historic  law,  ordained  by 
Providence,  it  is  tlie  inevitable  re-action  against  the  extremes 
of  individual   power,  which  are  to-day  asserted  through  a 
lawless  Northern  democracy.     It  aims  to  save  to  us   all  that 
was  true,  and  to  cast  out  all  that  was  false  in  the  Reformation 
era.     As  such,   therefore,  this  Revolution  is  the  van  of  a 
great  historic  movement,  whose  design  is  to  conserve  all  that 
is  precious  to  living  and,  for  us,  to  American  society — the 
historic  treasures  of  the  past,  all  the  blessedness  of  the  pres- 
ent, and  all  the  hopes  of  the  future. 

Considered  in  reference  to  American  civilizatinn,  this  Rev- 
olution has  a  more  special  and,  to  us,  valuable  significance. 


36  THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION". 

The  first  epocli  of  American  civilization  lias  just  closed."* 
Jamestown  and  Plymouth  Rock.  Cavalier  and  Puritan,  Celt, 
and  Teuton,  Hollander*  arid  Huguenot,  Massachusetts  and 
South  Carolina,  1776  and  1812,  the  purchase  of  Louisana,  the 
occupancy  of  the  Mississippi  Yalley,  the  Mexican  War,  the 
Locomotive  and  the  Telegraph — each  and  all  of  these  historic 
forces  have  finished  their  special  works,  and  gone  to  make  up 
the  distinct  and  royal  personality  of  an  age  that  has  departed. 
Whatsoever  of  hope  or  aim  they  specially  carried  has  been 
fulfilled.  Whatsoever  of  true  and  beautiful,  of  great  and 
good,  distinguished  them,  has  been  absorbed  in  the  essence  of 
American  life ;  they  belong  to  the  massive  stratum  of  the 
past.  "The  doctrine  of  self-sovereignty,  first  a  metaphysical 
abstraction,  then  a  formal  experiment  on  a  scale  of  magnificence 
never  known  in  the  history  of  a  principle  of  political  science, 
is  now  passing  through  its  third  stage  of  development,  and  to- 
day it  is  stronger  than  ever  before.  It  is  purifying  itself  by 
its  own  action  ;  the  action  is  tremendous,  but  this  only  shows 
the  vitality  of  the  sentiment.  It  is  redeeming  itself  from  its 
own  prejudices  and  passions  ;  the  redemption  is  bloody,  but 
this  only  shows  how  tenacious  are  the  issues  at  stake.  Hith- 
erto its  battles  have  been  with  foreign  enemies  ;  against  them 
it  has  made  good  its  chosen  ground,  cleaving  with  its  own 
sword  a  broad  standing-place,  and  carving  out  of  the  mate- 
rials of  half  a  hemisphere  its  indestructible  fortunes.  Now 
it  is  self-conflict,  the  last  and  perfected  form  which  that  dis- 
ciplinary conflict  assumes.  As  with  individuals,  so  with  na- 
tions, this  law  of  self-conflict  ordained  by  Providence  as  a 
means  of  discipline,  a  source  of  strength,  a  condition  of  pro- 
gress through  all  tlie  possibilities  of  growth,  presents  itself  in 
two  distinct  forms,  the  inward  and  the  outAvard.  These  are 
distinct,  not  separate.  Eacli  involves  the  other ;  each  is  a 
complement  to  the  other.  This  lav,^  of  progressive  conflict 
expounds  itself  in  the  career  of  individuals,  nations,  and  re- 
ligion. It  presents  its  facts  over  a  large  surface  of  human  ex- 
perience, attests  its   divineness  in  manifold  forms,  and  chal- 

*A'1an'a   Regix'er,  Jan,   5,  1864      Plii/o3'~]:iJiy  of  fhe  ReiOAi'ion.   , 


THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION.  37 

lenges  our  faitli  by  wonders  that  would  be  miracles  buL  they 
belong  to  a  system  of  uniform  action.  Under  this  great  law 
our  struggle  takes  its  place.  Self- originated,  it  is  self-disci- 
plinary, and  hence  the  very  nature  of  the  conflict  shuts  it  up 
within  ourselves,  insulates  it  from  foreign  sj'-mpathy,  and  re- 
signs the  fate  of  republican  liberty  to  ihe  hands  of  its  imme- 
diate friends.  The  period  of  American  civilization  just  closed 
was  purely  initial  and  preparatory.  It  was  simply  an  intro- 
ductory stage,  providentially  ordained  to  effect  a  certain  end 
and  then  make  way  for  other  and  better  forms  of  political  and 
social,"  of  religious  and  philosophic  life.  It  prophesied  a 
grander  and  nobler  career. 

III.  This  Revolution  has  a  most  valuable  significance,  in 
that  it  aims  to  conserve  tlie  perfection  of  republican  government ; 
and  therein  to  vindicate  the  organic  laio,  under  which  civil  govern- 
ment was  first  constituted  by  Qod.  That  political  system,  in 
which  each  state  of  a'  confederacy  is  balanced  against  each 
other  state,  while  each  or  all  of  these  states  combined,  are 
balanced  against  the  central  authority  to  which  certain  well 
defined  powers  are  by  them  delegated,  is  the  perfection  of 
republican  government.  That  system  is  not  democratic,  but 
republican.  It  involves  the  doctrine  of  state  sovereignty, 
"  the  providential  principle  of  American  civilization,  and  the 
germ  of  all  the  industrial  and  social  grandeur  of  this  hemi- 
sphere " — a  principle  derived  from  the  bosom  of  European 
civilization,  and  which  this  Revolution  will  establish  upon 
this  continent  It  involves  representation,  the  political  race- 
feature  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race"" — representation,  not  of  the 
individual  directly,  but  of  the  state,  of  classes,  through  which 
alone  the  individual  should  be  felt.  Such,  contrary  to  ihe 
Northern  idea,  was  the  government  of  the  late  United  States; 
and  but  for  the  poison  of  foreign  and  radical  ideas,  working 
out  through   the  pestilent  heresy  of  universal  suffrage,  that 

*  We  belong  to  that  combination  of  races  which,  for  want  of  a  better  term, 
we  call  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  "In  politics,  its  race-feature  is  representalion ; 
in  science,  induction ;  in  art,  utility  and  then  beauty;  in  society,  domesticity: 
in  trade,  cosmopolitanism;  in  religion,  protestantism."  Address  of  ihe  Atlanta 
Register  to  the  lyeople  of  the  Confederate  Sla'cs. 


38  THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION. 

government  might  have  proved  a  success.     If  the  Soutli  re- 
peats that  heresy,  her  doom  is  sealed. 

The  institution  of  domestic  slavery  is  an  element  of  ines- 
timable value  in  our  political  system.  It  naturally  consigns 
the  whole  power  of  government  to  the  hands  of  those  who 
are  best  qualified  to  use  it.  The  dogma,  that  all  men  are 
entitled  to  equal  rights,  is  a  fatal  error.  The  rights,  the 
liberty  which  belong  to  a  man,  are  determined  wholly  by  his 
character  and  conditiou.  He  is  entitled  naturally,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  right,  to  that  form  of  government  which  is  suited  to 
that  character  and  condition.  The  African  slave  being  un- 
fitted in  every  respect  for  self-government,  or  for  a  share  in 
the  government  of  others,  is,  therefore,  entitled,  as  a  right,  to 
a  complete  government  by  qualified  superiors.  The  system 
of  Bible,  domestic  slavery  is,  therefore,  the  sum  of  the  Afri- 
can's rights,  and  the  sole  condition  of  his  welfare.  It  is  not 
a  wrong,  nor  an  oppression  to  him,  but  his  proper  liberty, 
because  it  is  precisely  that  form  of  government  which  is 
adapted  to  his  nature  and  condition,  and  to  which,  therefore, 
he  is  entitled  as  a  right  of  nature.  It  is  eminently  proper, 
that  society  should  contain  an  aristocracy — of  virtue,  of  intel- 
lect, of  blood  and  wealth,  and  worth;  and  they  alone  should 
control  the  powers  of  government,  because  they  are  most 
deeply  interested  in  the  public  weal,  and  are  best  qualified  to 
conserve  it.  The  political  and  social  system  of  these  states, 
this  is  the  finest  result  of  modern  political  philosophy.  It  is 
eminently  conservative,  and  eminently  suited  to  the  wants  of 
the  Southern  people.  It  opposes,  on  the  one  hand,  the  des- 
potism of  the  individual,  which  appears  in  a  lawless  demo- 
cracy like  that  of  the  United  States;  it  opposes,  on  the 
other,  the  despotism  of  the  mass,  which  appears  in  an  empire 
like  that  of  Russia,  the  only  living  representative  of  the  ex- 
treme of  ancient  history.  With  a  menial  class  of  contented 
and  governable  slaves,  whose  welfare  is  ensured  by  the  inter- 
est of  the  owners,  it  is  safe  from  the  danger  of  popular  insur- 
rection, and  able  to  build  up  a  new,  more  fruitful  and  powerful 
civilization.     Bestowing  a  complete  and   adapted  liberty  on 


THE  SOUTHEKN  REVOLUTION,  S9 

one  class,  and  a  complete  and  adapted  slavery  on  another,  it 
presents  the  truthful  anomaly  of  a  free  republican  govern- 
ment, resting  upon  the  rightful  paradox — liberty  and  slavery 
— proper  obedience  to  qualified  superiors.  So  the  universe, 
with  all  the  systems  of  truth  which  it  includes,  is  a  system  of 
paradoxes.  In  religion  is  the  fundamental  paradox  that  God 
is  sovereign,  while  man  is  responsible  and  perfectly  free;  in 
philosophy,  the  paradox  that  all  our  knowledge  is  derived 
through  the  senses,  and  yet  man  knows  nothing,  which  is  not 
perceived  in  his  conciousness  ;  and  the  whole  system  of  ma- 
terial nature  is  governed  by  the  two  opposing  forces  of 
attraction  and  repulsion. 

Intensely  this  Revolution  is  another  assertion  to  the  world 
that — "  governments  derive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent 
of  the  governed  " — and  that,  "  whenever  any  form  of  govern- 
ment becomes  destructive  of  the  ends  for  which  it  was  insti- 
tuted, it  is  the  right  of  the  people  to  alter  or  abolish  it  and  to 
institute  a  new  government,  laying  its  foundation  on  such 
principles  and  organizing  its  powers  in  such  forms,  as  to  them 
shall  seem  most  likely  to  aftect  their  safety  and  happiness." 
The  epithet,  reheU,  so  fiercely  hurled  upon  us  by  the  North- 
men is  sadly  amusing  when  it  is  remembered,  that  we  are 
simply  contending  for  the  inherent  right  of  self-government, 
which  was  so  nobly  vindicated  by  their  fathers  and  by  ours. 
The  tribunal  of  history,  when  it  shall  come  to  pronounce 
upon  this  Revolution,  will  convict  our  enemies  of  a  greater 
crime  than  they  would  fasten  upon  us.  The  only  expiation 
they  can  offer  will  be  a  repentance  less  humiliating  than  the 
merciful  defeat  which  awaits  them.  But  higher  still,  in  the 
sense  of  a  distinguished  living  speaker  ;* — "  I  base  the  vindi- 
cation of  the  South  upon  a  far  older  record  than  the  Declara- 
tion of  1776,  and  assert  her  rights  under  a  more  authoritative 
charater  than  the  Federal  compact.  I  affirm  that  in  the  or- 
ganic law  under  which  human  governments  were  constituted 
by  God,  not  consolidation  but  separation  is  recognized  as  the 
regulative  and  determining  principle."     From  the  day  when 

*Rev.  Dr.  Palmer — Same  Discourse. 


40  THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION. 

God  divided  the  earth  between  the  Sons  of  Noah,  impressing 
upon  each  branch  of  the  I'ace,  the  character  fitting  it  for  its 
mission:  from  the  day  Avhen  He  dispersed  the  i3abel  builders 
on  the  plains  of  Shinar  bj  the  radical  confusion  of  human 
speech;  from  that  day  to  this  the  Almighty  has  ruled  the  hu- 
man race  and  restrained  its  abounding  wickedness  by  divid- 
ing it  into  parts,  and  balancing  one  nation,  kingdom,  state, 
against  another.  I,  therefore,  recognize  in  the  rupture  of  the 
great  American  Republic  a  new  application  of  this  law,  in 
order  to  the  development  of  a  better  life ;  that  Republic  had 
grown  too  strong  for  its  virtue.  And  I  believe  that  vre  have 
reached  one  of  those  great  junctures  in  history,  when  Jeho- 
vah will  manifest  His  own  power  in  the  establishment  of  our  in- 
dependence by  the  application  of  this  organic  law  to  the  con- 
ditions of  American  nationality.  "  When,  therefore,  we  are 
aspersed  before  the  tribunal  of  nations  as  fehels  against  the 
Federal  government,  the  Statesman  may  lay  his  hand  upon  the 
documents  drawn  up  by  our  fathers,  and  from  them  may  just- 
ify the  South ;  but  we  may  ascend  to  that  fundamental  law, 
by  which  in  the  first  organization  of  society  God  constituted 
civil  government,  and  say  that  this  law  of  separation  is  the 
'law  of  nature  and  of  nature's  God,'  which  entitles  us  to  as- 
sume a  separate  and  equal  station  among  the  powers  of  the 
earth,"  And  yet  the  American  dream  of  universal  empire 
was  not  wholly  useless.  "  Impulse  and  imaginative  activity 
are  essential  to  the  first  stages  of  national  life;  but  as  we  had 
no  feudalism,  no  crusades,  no  El  Doradoes  to  furnish  this 
food  of  lusty  growth  and  exuberant  vigor,  the  enthusiasm  of  a 
grand  empire,  holding  half  a  hemisphere  in  its  grasp,  sup- 
plied the  needed  nectar  to  this  modern.  Jupiter.  Its  work 
perfected,  its  volcanic  muscle  embodied  in  iron,  iis  finer 
ideals  sculptured  in  marable,  the  great  Union  passed  away."* 
This  idea  of  consolidated  power  failed  even  in  the  congenial 
Roman  life.  When  wrought  upon  the  church  by  Hildebrand 
and  his  successors,  it  wrecked  her  power  on  the  rock-bound 
shore  of  the  Reformation  era.     The  First  Consul  sought  to 

*  Address  of  (he  Atlanta  Register. 


THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION.  41 

enthrone  it  upon  the  fickle  life  of  the  French ;  it  recoiled  be- 
fore the  flames  of  Moscow ;  it  strewed  the  fields  of  Europe 
with  the  flower  of  France ;  hy  destiny  it  was  vanquished  at 
Waterloo,  and  then  buried  with  Napoleon  at  St.  Helena.  Now 
we  behold  the  strange  anomaly  of  the  United  States,  a  Re- 
public built  on  the  idea  of  individual  liberty,  asserting  every 
control  over  the  thoughts  and  the  consciences  of  men,  over 
every  interest  of  society  in  State  and  Church,  that  has  been 
claimed  by  the  worst  despotisms  of  the  past.  Like  all  other 
Babel  empires,  it  must  fall  before  the  logic  of  history.  No 
nation,  which  identifies  itself  with  an  Imperial  civilization, 
or  with  its  congenial  element,  a  despotic  churchism,  can  suc- 
ceed. Both  are  at  war  with  the  genius  of  modern  history  ; 
chiefly  for  this  reason  poor  Poland  has  bled  and  struggled  in 
vain ;  and  sweet  Erin  lies  shorn  of  her  strength  and  beauty. 
Let  us  not  be  anxious  or  in  haste  to  form  alliances  with  any 
of  the  powers  of  imperial  Europe.  Our  best  dependence  is 
the  God  of  the  historic  covenant,  and  the  principles  which, 
derived  from  that  covenant,  inhere  in  our  civilization  and 
political  structure. 

IV.  This  Revolution  has  an  intense  significance,  in  that  it 
marks  the  beginning  of  what  certainly  seems  to  be  the  last  period 
of  human  history  on  its  or  present  conditions.  For  the  reasons 
suggested  in  the  preceding  discussion,  it  seems  proper  to  de- 
scribe the  present  period  as  the  Period  of  Conservatism.  The 
whole  tendency  of  the  age  is  eminently  conservative.  The 
world  everywhere,  but  especially  in  these  Confederate  States, 
is  reacting  in  one  form  or  other  against  the  extremes  of  in- 
dividual authority ;  and  that  with  an  intensity  and  rapidity 
which  mark  no  previous  era.  The  United  States  and  Eng- 
land and  France,  which  lead  the  van  of  modern  civilization, 
all  feel  the  workings  of  this  intense  individualism.  Russia,  is 
the  only  exception,  and  yet  she  is  fast  becoming  a  part  of  our 
actual  history.  Power  has  begun  a  third  movement  which 
must  complete  itself'  It  will  advance,  perhaps  through  many 
conflicts,  perhaps  through  blood  and  suffering  to  its  destined 
end  ;  but  harmony  will  at  last  crown  all  human  relationships. 

6 


42  THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION. 

It  would  seem  also  tliat  this  is  the  last  period  of  History  ;  for 
several  reasons  which  I  will  briefly  mention,  in  closing.  If 
the  views  of  the  most  sensible  and  learned  students  of  pro- 
phecy during  the  last  three  hundred  years  be  accepted  as 
true,  we  are  living  in  the  last  day  of  the  World's  Prophetic 
or  Sabbatic  Week.  I  do  not  refer  to  such  writers  as  the  author 
of  Armageddon,  nor  even  to  the  celebrated  Dr.  Cummings  of 
London.  The  latter  is  a  brilliant,  cultivated  enthusiast ;  and 
the  theory  of  the  former,  though  ingenious,  is  fundamentally 
untrue.  But  it  is  remarkable  that  the  most  profound  and 
jiidicious  Students  of  prophecy  during  the  last  three  hundred 
years,  have  referred  with  singular  unanimity  to  this  decade  of 
years  between  1860  and  1870,  as  one  that  would  be  marked^ 
by  decisive  changes  in  Church  and  State ;  and  would  at  least 
set  agoing  that  immediate  train  of  influences  which  would 
usher  in  the  millenial  era.  Some,  you  are  aware,  have 
specially  mentioned  the  years  1866  and  1867  as  decisive 
years  ;  and  some  have  dated  from  these  years  the  commence- 
ment of  the  millenium  itself.  This  supposition  however 
would  seem  to  be  improbable,  because  the  continent  of  Africa 
remains  to  be  evangelized  before  the  Gospel-promise  can  be 
fulfilled,  and  this  will  probably  require  more  than  one  hun- 
dred years  for  its  accomplishment.  But  still  this  singular 
unanimity  on  the  part  of  most  worthy  men,  impresses  us  with 
the  conviction  that  we  are  indeed  living  in  the  last  era  of  human 
history.  Especially  was  it  a  favorite  idea  with  some  of  these 
men,  that  the  world  would  last  during  six  periodic  days  of  one 
thousand  years  each,  and  that  the  seventh  thousand  years,  would 
be  the  day  of  the  World's  Sabbatic  Eest.  Now  according  to 
the  commonly  received  chronology  we  arc  living  in  the  last  of 
these  Prophetic  Days,  All  the  elements  of  national  and  his- 
toric life  which  the  world  can  furnish  are  now  employed,  so 
that  when  the  present  period  shall  have  done  its  work,  there 
will  remain  no  new  elements  or  races  to  take  up  and  complete 
what  we  leave  imdone.  What  Dr,  Arnold  beautifully  said^ 
twenty-five  years  ago,  concerning  modern  history  in  general, 
may   be  applied   with   great  force  to- present  history.     "I 


THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION.  43 

mean  that  present  history  appears  to  be  not  only  a  step  in 
advance  of  previous  liistory  but  ike  last  step  ;  it  appears  to 
bear  marks  of  the  fulness  of  1)imc,  as  if  there  would  be  no 
future  history  beyond  it.     For  the  last  eighteen  hundred  years 
Greece  has  fed  the  human  intellect ;  Eome,  taught  by  Greece, 
and  improving  upon  her  teacher,  has  been  the  source  of  law  and 
government  and  social  civilization;"  Judea  has  given  to  the 
world  a  pure  Theism  and  the  idea  of  expiatory  sacrifice  ;  and 
what  neither  one  nor  all  of  these  could  furnish,  ''  the  perfec- 
tion of  moral  and  spiritual  truth,  has  been  given  by  Christian- 
ity.    The  changes  which  have  been  wrought,  have  arisen  out 
of  the  reception  of  these  elements  by  new  races  •  races  en- 
dowed with  such  force  of  character  that  what  was  old  in 
itself  seemed,  when  exhibited  in  them,  to  become  something 
new.     But  races  so  gifted  are  and  have  been  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  world  few  in  number  ;  the  mass  of  mankind  have 
no  such  power ;  they  either  receive  the  impression  of  foreign 
elements  so  completely  that  their  own  individual  character  is 
absorbed  and  they  take  their  whole  being  from  without  •  or 
being  incapable  of  taking  in  higlier  elements,  they  dwindle 
away  when  brought  into  the  presence  of  a  more  powerful  life 
and  become  at  last  extinct  altogether.     Now  looking  anxious- 
ly round  the  world  for  any  new  races  which  may  receive  the 
seed,  so  to  speak,  of  our  present  history,  into  a  kindly  yet  a 
vigorous  soil,  and  may  reproduce  it,  the  same  and  yet  new, 
for  a  future  period,  we  know  not  where  such  are  to  be  found. 
Some  appear  exhausted — others  incapable  ;  and  yet  the  sur- 
face of  the  whole  globe  is  known  to  us.     The  Eoman  colonies 
along  the  banks  of  the  Danube  looked  out  on  tlie  countrj^  be- 
yond those  rivers,  as  we  look  out  upon  the  stars,  and  actually 
see  with  our  eyes  a  world  of  which  wc  know  nothing.     The 
Romans  knew  that  there  was  a  vast  portion  of  the  earth  which 
they  did  not   know  ;  how  vast  it  might  be  was  a  part  of  its 
mysteries.     But  to  us  all  is  explored  ;  imagination  can  hope 
for  no  new  Atlantic  Island  to  realize  the  vision  of  Plato's 
Critias ;  no  rising  continent  peopled  by  youthful  races,  the 
destined  "  restorers    of    worn-out  generations.      Everywhere 


44  THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION. 

the  search  has  been  made  and  the  report  has  been  received ; 
we  have  the  full  amount  of  earth's  resorces  before  us,  and 
they  seem  inadequate  to  supply  life,  for  another  cycle  of  hu- 
man history.  I  am  well  aware  that  to  state  this  as  a  positive 
belief  would  be  the  extreme  of  presun-iption;  there  may  be 
nations  reserved  hereafter  for  great  purposes  of  God's  provi- 
dence, whose  fitness  for  their  appointed  work  will  not  betray 
itself  until  the  work  and  the  time  for  doing  it  be  come.  But, 
without  any  presumptuous  confidence,  if  there  be  any  signs^ 
howerver  uncertain,  that  we  are  living  in  the  last  period  of 
the  world's  history,  that  no  other  races  remain  behind  to  per- 
form what  we  have  neglected  or  to  restore  what  we  have 
ruined,  then  indeed  the  interest  of  present  history  does  be- 
come intense,  and  the  importance  of  not  wasting  the  time  still 
left  to  us  many  well  be  called  incalculable.  When  an  army's 
last  reserve  has  been  brought  into  action  every  single  soldier 
knows  that  he  must  do  his  duty  to  the  utmost ;  if  he  can  not 
win  the  battle  now  he  must  lose  it.  So  if  our  existing  nations 
are  the  last  reserve  of  the  world,  its  fate  may  be  said  to  be  in 
their  liands — God's  work  on  earth  will  be  left  undone  if  they 
do  not   do  it,''''* 

Such  are  some  of  the  reflections  that  have  led  me  to  take 
this  view  of  the  meaning  of  the  Southern  Eevolution. 
AVhether  they  shall  be  verified  in  detail,  history  alone  can 
determine.  But  being  deeply  convinced  of  at  least  their 
general  truth,  I  have  ventured  to  lay  them  upon  your  candid 
consideration.  Whatsoever  a  just  criticism  may  reject,  or  his- 
tory may  refute,  enough  will  remain  to  show  that  the  position  of 
the  South  is  sublime.  We  are  leading  the  great  battle  for  the 
sum  of  modern  history — for  the  regulated  liberty  and  civiliza- 
tion of  the  age.  It  is  conservative  religion  against  atheism — 
constitutional  law  against  fanatical  higher  law — social  stability 
against  destructive  radicalism.  Upon  this  conflict,  in  the 
highest  sense  of  Napoleon,  the  eighteen  christian  centuries 
are  looking  down.  Our  subjugation  would  be  the  only  inex- 
plicable anomaly  of  history  and  its  most  shameful  fact.     Na- 

*Dr.  Arnold  Lfcturcs  on  Mi.iath  Ltis'cry  pga.  46 — 48. 


THE  SOUTHERN  REVOLUTION.  45 

tions,  one  has  said,  are  never  murdered ;  they  commit  sui- 
cide— never  destroyed  by  external  power,  they  sink  under 
their  own  corruptions  and  cowardice.  If,  therefore,  the 
Southern  people  are  what  they  profess  to  be ;  if  they  are 
what  they  have  proved  themselves  to  be,  through  toil,  and 
sacrifice  and  blood ;  if  they  carry  any  great  historic  trusts, 
which  are  to  be  held  for  themselves  and  their  children ;  if 
they  embody  any  great  principles,  which  render  them  worthy 
of  a  distinct  historic  existence;  if  they  are  able  to  be  an  im- 
portant element  in  the  civilization  of  the  present  age ;  then  is 
the  subjugation  of  the  South  an  absolute  historical  impossi- 
bility. The  independence  of  these  States,  is  already  an  es- 
tablished fact ;  it  is  ordained  by  the  saving  demands  of  the 
age,  and  by  the  inexorable  logic  of  history.  It,  therefore, 
only  remains  to  us  to  stand  in  our  appointed  lot,  patient, 
faithful,  till  our  work  is  done.  Cloudless,  happy  days  are  in 
store  for  you  and  your  children.  Before  other  battle  storms 
shall  beat  upon  the  continent,  and  perhaps  upon  the  world, 
let  us  strive  to  be  where  "  the  wicked  cease  from  troubling, 
and  the  weary  are  at  rest." 


